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
State-wide Initiative for Creating Positive Learning Environments (Ohio)
- Presented by: Mary Lou Rush, Cheryl Kish, Ohio Department of Education
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
SEL Conceptual Framework for Positive Youth Development
- Presented by: Molly McCloskey-Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, USA
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Creating and Promoting Positive School Climate in Ohio’s Schools
- Presented by: Ohio Department of Education
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Peer Mediation Creating Life Long Conflict Practitioners
- Presented by: Mary Alice Smallbone and J. Frank Rizzo
- 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
The Illinois Story
- Presented by: Mary Utne O'Brien-CASEL, Chicago, USA
- 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Clique bullying scenario | Web-based interactive scenario which presents children reacting to a clique bullying situation and "taking a stand against the crowd." | |
| Making class matter and engaging difference | 42-page Powerpoint presentation given at the Sustaining Conflict Resolution Education: Building Bridges to the Future conference in Fairfax, VA, which "explore[d] ways to make ideas relevant and memorable so students take the ideas home and apply them to their every day lives, examples will include exercises on how to understand and engage difference well." | |
| Conflict management skills leadership competencies: A higher ed success model | 26-slide Powerpoint presentation given at the Sustaining Conflict Resolution Education: Building Bridges to the Future conference in Fairfax, VA, which "highlights a successful professional development program for staff at University of Wisconsin-Madison, this program infuses conflict management skills into the workplace culture, from new and aspiring supervisors to experienced program and project managers, teaching conflict resolution, facilitation, and mediation skills and integrating them into a broader leadership development curriculum, the program serves to build bridges and support for student leadership efforts, enhancing opportunities for peer mediation as well." | |
| Manual for community colleges developing programs in peace and conflict studies: 1st ed. | 96-page PDF, "Manual [which] is a product of a collaboration in which lessons learned are shared on developing programs, certificates, and degrees in the field for community colleges. It is a resource for faculty and administrators authored by faculty and administrators. The chapters submitted reflect a range of approaches and writing styles – some informal, others more rigorous. The authors generally approached topics in a generic way providing recommendations that could be used in a range of institutions. Some pieces reflect looking at one institution and its efforts in a case study approach and then focusing on lessons learned. Overall, the chapters demonstrate the range of strategies that community colleges – arguably the most diverse and varied academic institutions in the U.S. today - are taking to teaching about peace and conflict issues. As such, the writing is reflective of the topics and settings they arise from. It is the intent of the editors that chapters will continue to be edited, updated, revised, and new articles added as the field develops and community college involvement increases." | |
| Peace education: A pathway to a culture of peace (2nd Edition) | 209-page pdf book designed to provide educators with the basic knowledge base as well as the skill- and value-orientations that we associate with educating for a culture of peace. Although this work is primarily directed towards the pre-service and in-service preparation of teachers in the formal school system, it may be used in nonformal education. Part I presents chapters that are meant to help us develop a holistic understanding of peace and peace education. Part II discusses the key themes in peace education. Each chapter starts with a conceptual essay on a theme and is followed by some practical teaching-learning ideas that can either be used in a class or adapted to a community setting. Part III focuses on the peaceable learning climate and the educator, the agent who facilitates the planting and nurturing of the seeds of peace in the learning environment. Finally, the whole school approach is introduced to suggest the need for institutional transformation and the need to move beyond the school towards engagement with other stakeholders in the larger society. | |
| Inter-agency P.E.P.: Skills for constructive living: Teacher training manual 3 | 50-page pdf manual 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 ... the manual looks at ‘good teaching’ and the skills required to develop ‘good teaching’, these skills are useful not just for a Peace Education Programme but also for all aspects of the professional life of the teachers whom you are training." | |
| From a predominantly white campus to a culturally diverse campus: Implications for mediation | Pdf article reprinted from the June/July 1991 Issue (Vol 33) of The Fourth R, The Newsletter of the National Association for Mediation in Education discusses the notion that when campuses change from homogeneous populations of students to diverse ones that "staff must be trained to deal with and respond to the problems and tensions that are the natural result of the altered campus demographic." The use of the mediation center is seen as an essential tool by which the a campus can smoothly become culturally diverse due to its trained members who take the position that nearly any conflict can be worked out. | |
| Nonverbal communication for educators | Online learning module consisting of 14-sections "designed to introduce you to key ideas related to nonverbal communication, with a special emphasis on aspects of nonverbal communication that relate to teaching and learning in the classroom. By the completion of this learning module you should be able to: Understand the importance of nonverbal communication; State a definition of nonverbal communication and identify different types; Describe the purpose nonverbal communication serves in the communication process; Identify core nonverbal communication concepts that relate to classroom management; Understand Dyssemia (a condition related to the inability to read facial expressions) and its causes; Understand the use of DANVA as a tool for recognizing Dyssemia; Access simple activities and reference materials for creating your own teaching activities related to Nonverbal Communication." | |
| Impact of violence on learning for youth: What can we do? | 35-page PDF report that focuses "on the words of the interviewees, particularly the youth—both in school and out of school—and what they tell educators and others working in educational programs about what we can do to support learning." In writing the report the author wanted to understand "how violence affects learning, and to examine how school responses played a part in creating this picture. Most importantly I wanted to look for ways to strengthen the possibilities of supporting learning for youth in high schools and in youth literacy and training programs." | |
| 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." | |
| What's in a name?: Capturing the essence of campus mediation | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 1, Number 4, (Nov/Dec 2000), which discusses the work of the Campus Mediation Center (CMC) at Syracuse University. | |
| PROS: Peaceful resolutions for Oklahoma [elementary] students: School-based peer mediation curric | 83-page PDF manual which helps teachers and trainers introduce elementary school students to peer mediation and conflict and teach communication and problem solving skills. | |
| Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL): Improving behaviour, improving learning | This fully articulated curriculum resource from the United Kingdom is available as a 90MB zip file containing the full kit or as individual pdfs. It aims to develop the underpinning qualities and skills that help promote positive behaviour and effective learning. It focuses on five social and emotional aspects of learning: self-awareness, managing feelings, motivation, empathy and social skills. The materials help children develop skills such as understanding another's point of view, working in a group, sticking at things when they get difficult, resolving conflict and managing worries. They build on effective work already in place in the many primary schools who pay systematic attention to the social and emotional aspects of learning through whole-school ethos, initiatives such as circle time or buddy schemes, and the taught personal, social and health education (PSHE) and Citizenship curriculum. The materials are organised into seven themes: New Beginnings, Getting on and falling out, Say no to bullying, Going for goals!, Good to be me, Relationships and Changes. Each theme is designed for a whole-school approach and includes a whole-school assembly and suggested follow-up activities in all areas of the curriculum. The colour-coded resources are organized at four levels: Foundation Stage, Years 1 and 2, Years 3 and 4, and Years 5 and 6. Pupil reference material and photocopiable teacher reference material accompany each theme. | |
| Reducing youth crime | 4:50 podcast discussing "school-based violence prevention programs [which] have been proven effective at reducing violence, truancy, drug abuse, and delinquency." | |
| 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. | |
| Evaluation report on progress made through the OSCE's efforts to unify the Gymnasium Mostar: Summer | 51-page PDF evaluation "of the unification of the Gymnasium Mostar in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), as commissioned by the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to BiH ... the Gymnasium Mostar was an historic and premier secondary school prior to the war of 1992-1995. It was completely destroyed during the war and had become the centre of an effort to revitalize the historic Mostar downtown. An initiative to restore the multinational and high-quality nature of the school was viewed as an opportunity to use this divided school in this divided city as a model or beacon for potential reform efforts throughout the country." | |
| Intake hints | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 2, Number 2, (Feb 2002), which examines intake procedures and scheduling issues for community mediation, based on work done by "Neighborhood Dispute Settlement Program of Dauphin County (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), ... a community mediation program which receives referrals from criminal justice entities." | |
| Ideas for using emotion cards: Citizenship education for young people with special needs | 5-page pdf document which presents a number of images of different emotional states. The cards can be used with particular lessons or to allow children to show how they feel about specific situations. | |
| Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences Among Youths (2nd Ed) | This 373-page compendium, available as a pdf, provides researchers and prevention specialists with a set of tools to assess violence-related beliefs, behaviors, and influences, as well as to evaluate programs to prevent youth violence. Although this compendium contains more than 170 measures, it does not claim to be an exhaustive listing of available measures. Most of the measures in this compendium are intended for use with youths between the ages of 11 and 24 years, to assess such factors as serious violent and delinquent behavior, conflict resolution strategies, social and emotional competencies, peer influences, parental monitoring and supervision, family relationships, exposure to violence, collective efficacy, and neighborhood characteristics. The compendium also contains a number of scales and assessments developed for use with children between the ages of 5 and 10 years, to measure factors such as aggressive fantasies, beliefs supportive of aggression, attributional biases, prosocial behavior, and aggressive behavior. When parent and teacher versions of assessments are available, they are included as well. | |
| Conflict resolution protocol for elementary classrooms, A | 4-page PDF excerpt from the book, "The First Six Weeks of School" which discusses teaching conflict resolution, "a basic belief underlying The Responsive Classroom® approach to teaching is that how children learn to treat one another is as important as what they learn in reading, writing, and arithmetic. We believe that social skills such as cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and selfcontrol are essential to children’s academic and social success and we emphasize the teaching of these skills, along with academics, throughout the school day. There are many strategies we use to teach these social skills at the elementary level (K-6), one of which is teaching a protocol for conflict resolution." |