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

Effective Ways to Motivate Change in Youth Using Restorative Justice Practices

  • Presented by: Keysha Myers, Summit County Juvenile Court; Myron Lewis, Summit County Public Health
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Cyberbullying: What the research is telling us…

  • Presented by: Amanda Lenhart
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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
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International and National Conflict Resolution Education (CRE)

  • Presented by: Jennifer Batton and Brandi Suttles
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Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education – Overview

  • Presented by: Tricia Jones
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Supporting Community “Thirdsiders” via the East Side Conflict Resolution Outreach Project

  • Presented by: Bill Warters and Daniela Shuke, Wayne State University MADR Program
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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
Shared Solutions - A Guide to Preventing and Resolving Conflicts (in Special Ed) The Ontario Ministry of Education encourages the use of approaches and strategies that lead to higher achievement for all students in Ontario's publicly funded education system. This Shared Solutions resource guide is intended to help parents, educators, and students with special education needs work together to prevent conflicts, resolve them quickly, and allow students to develop their full potential and succeed in school. The approaches outlined build on techniques and strategies for conflict prevention and resolution that are already in place in many school boards.
Pre-Service School Administrator Curriculum A 179-page pdf document containing a five module curriculum designed to enable administrators to examine conflict and better understand the process of conflict management. It serves as a companion curriculum to the Center for the Prevention of School Violence's "Reach In, Reach Out, Reach Over Conflict Management Curriculum" and provides information on building a foundation of support for teachers and students in conflict management and extending that support throughout entire schools.
Listening without formulas 15-page Powerpoint presentation given at the Sustaining Conflict Resolution Education: Building Bridges to the Future conference in Fairfax VA, which discusses the use of reflective listening, I-messages and paraphrasing in conflict resolution.
Introducing cooperation and conflict resolution into schools: A systems approach 29-page PDF chapter in the 2001 publication: Peace, conflict and violence: Peace psychology for the 21st Century by D.J. Christie, R.V. Wagner and D.A. Winter. The chapter argues the fundamental importance of a systemic approace to peace and conflict resolution education. The authors discuss five levels of "school systems through which one can introduce cooperation and conflict resolution concepts, skills, and processes: Level 1, the student disciplinary system; Level 2, the curriculum; Level 3, pedagogy; and Level 4, the school culture and Level 5, the community—will enhance the view of the school system as an “open system” embedded in a larger communal system which can aid in the sustainability of school system change."
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."
Reaching across boundaries: Talk to create change 21-page pdf handbook which, "shows you how to conduct Mix It Up Dialogues. In the dialogues, participants will have honest discussions about social boundaries, and they will plan action projects that help cross those boundaries ... Mix It Up Dialogues aren't just about talking, however. They're also about taking action -- changing personal behaviors that may hurt or exclude others and engaging in collective projects to improve school climate."
ASJA mediation component gaining strength Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 1, Number 2, (March/April 2000), presenting the Association for Student Judicial Affairs (ASJA) and events and programs at their Twelfth Annual International Conference.
Peace education curriculum: Programa pendidiken damai 92-page word document 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."
Manual for Colleges and Universities Developing Programs in Peace and Conflict Studies
The Role of Restorative Justice in Teen Courts: A Preliminary Look In March 2000, the American Probation and Parole Association convened a focus group to examine and discuss the role of restorative justice in teen court programs (also called youth and peer courts). The panel consisted of persons working actively in teen courts and persons working actively in more traditional restorative justice-based programs. This paper provides a brief overview of restorative justice principles and addresses several key issues the focus group members identified that serve as a promising foundation from which teen courts can begin to move toward integrating more restorative justice-based practices within their programs. Key issues discussed include how youth courts can rethink the role of victims and the community within their programs, how youth courts can alter the way that their proceedings and practices are structured, and how youth courts can rethink and redefine sentencing options so that they are based on the restorative justice philosophy.
Digital Pathways for Peace As peacebuilders place increasing importance on the use of digital technologies to sustain peacebuilding work in this midst of the Covid‑19 pandemic, Peace Direct convened a three‐day online consultation with over 75 practitioners and academics across the globe to share insights and knowledge on how to capitalise on the opportunities for peace that digital technologies provide. The 56-page report is the latest in Peace Direct's series of ‘Local Voices for Peace’ reports. ‘Digital Pathways for Peace: Insights and lessons from a global online consultation’ shares perspectives from local peacebuilders on the benefits and challenges of using technology to build peace, and offers recommendations for policymakers, donors and civil society to harness the capabilities digital technologies offer.
Non-violence in education 79-page pdf manuscript published in cooperation with Institut de Recherche sur la Resolution Non-Violente des Conflits (IRNC), of which the author says, "These pages do not claim that merely placing the principle of non-violence at the heart of the educational project could be enough to solve them with ease. It is not our intention to teach teachers how to do their job. Our only aim is to urge them to look at their daily practices in the light of the principles and methods of non-violence. Perhaps we can all agree that when non-violence is possible, it is preferable. If so, and if non-violence is preferable, then it is up to us to do everything we can to make it possible. This study does not claim to be offering anything other than an exploration of the possibilities of non-violence." English translation of original French work.
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.
Mediation on campus: A history and planning guide 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 exploring the role of mediation at colleges and universities, with a list of questions that those thinking of starting mediation programs should ask themselves.
Using WebQuests to promote integrative thinking in conflict studies Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 1, Number 4 , (Nov/Dec 2000), introducing WebQuests which, "are online curriculum modules which engage students in learning about an authentic topic or problem, generally, WebQuests are cooperative activities where students assume different roles relative to an authentic problem."
Evaluating Your Conflict Resolution Education Program: A Guide for Educators and Evaluators This 258-page pdf manual is intended to help educators and/or evaluators conduct evaluations of their conflict resolution education programs. Because much of the funding from the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management and the Ohio Department of Education supports school programs, most attention was placed on helping users evaluate these kinds of programs. The manual was prepared as a workbook so that it should be easy to use. Worksheets are included throughout the beginning parts of the manual to help users identify the program goals and evaluation goals they want to emphasize. When offered, questionnaires and interview questions are presented so that the user can simply copy the forms from the book and use them in a school.
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.
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."
Inter-agency P.E.P.: Skills for constructive living: Teacher training manual 1 61-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."
School-based violence prevention programs: A resource manual 199-page pdf manual which "provides practical research- and expert-based information on school-based programs to prevent interpersonal violence. We review 79 prevention programs. Each has research evidence, addresses unique "at-risk" populations, such as children with disabilities, or uses innovative approaches to engaging youth."