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
Columbine Facilitation: Lessons Learned
- Presented by: Lisa Loescher and Myra Isenhart
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Citizen Diplomacy as CRE: Building Mutual Understanding and Peaceful Relations
- Presented by: Michelle Watson & Dr. Susan Colville-Hall
- 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
Changing the World – Youth Mediators Across the Globe
- Presented by: Tricia Jones
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Connecting Schools, Communities, and Families through SEL
- Presented by: Linda Lantieri, Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Lessons for Helping Students Develop Emotional Awareness to Support CRE
- Presented by: Christa M. Tinari
- 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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." | |
| Public policy and conflict resolution in education project: Final report, July 2002 | 17 page pdf report of the The Western Justice Center Foundation, Pasadena, California, in partnership with the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR), which "undertook a project funded by the Compton Foundation to develop recommendations for integrating conflict resolution education (CRE) throughout California public schools. We interviewed and met with relevant practitioners, educators, policymakers and others to assess needs and gather their views with respect to CRE and public policy." | |
| Educational discipline using the principles of restorative justice | 15-page pdf article which "shows how restorative justice techniques can be used with students in correctional and alternative education settings. The simple principles of restorative justice are outlined and their suitability for offenders is illustrated through actual prison incidents that have been dealt with using these principles. A protocol is suggested for teachers and administrators who might consider adopting this approach." | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| What have I done: Victim empathy pack responsibility exercises | 13-page Word document presenting a "new victim empathy resource designed to keep victim awareness high in Restorative Justice practitioner's priorities." Contains a number of exercises about taking responsibility for one's actions and exploring feelings. | |
| Peer mediation programs: An end to school violence? | On-line journal article which "focuses on the ineffectiveness of PMPs [Peer Mediation Programs] to combat higher-levels of school violence, part I discusses school violence, both past and present, part II explores the shift from traditional methods of discipline to more proactive and education-based methods that are used in many schools today, part III addresses the fundamentals of peer mediation including what it is and how it is implemented, part IV examines which students PMPs should be targeting and why PMPs fail to prevent them from committing violent acts on their schools, finally, the conclusion recommends ways to reduce conflict in schools." | |
| Insider's edge, The | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 1, Number 2, (March/April 2000), presenting the use of a "designated insider, an individual skilled in conflict intervention who is part of the organization, but not part of the particular department or issue in dispute," in solving workplace conflicts. | |
| Teaching conflict and conflict resolution in school: (Extra-) curricular considerations | Report that explored "the school factors that influence young people's developing understandings of war, conflict, and peace ... as children grow, they develop understandings about interpersonal and social conflict, about procedures for handling it, and about the violence and war that may emerge when conflicts are not resolved, in school, official curricula guide children's and adolescents' development of understanding about war, conflict and peace, at least as powerfully, young people also learn about conflict from the implicit curricula of student activities, teacher and peer responses to political events, school governance, and discipline practices." | |
| Slouching towards inclusion | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 2, Number 3, (May 2002), which discusses the need for diversity in the field of conflict resolution and examples of challenges and solutions when creating diversity within the conflict resolution team is a primary factor. | |
| Conflict resolution education in teacher education: Expanding CRE programs and resources | 22-page Powerpoint panel discussion presented at the Sustaining Conflict Resolution Education: Building Bridges to the Future conference in Fairfax, VA, which "provided an overview of the CRETE (Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education) project ... [a] program to provide pre-service teachers and school-based teaching mentors with critical skills and knowledge of conflict resolution education and class room management necessary for cultivating constructive learning environments for children, enhancing student learning and bolstering teacher retention." | |
| Collegiate mediation programs: A critical review | Pdf article reprinted from April/May 1994 issue (Vol. 50 pp. 36-37) of The Fourth R, the Newsletter of the National Association for Mediation in Education discussing mediation programs at colleges and universities. Although these types of programs, like community medation, can be helpful in solving problems the author worries that mediation centers can become a controlling arm of university administration rather than a "meaningful way for the issues to be confronted by the community," remedies for overcoming this challenge are suggested. | |
| Restorative justice in the classroom: Lesson 2 class meetings | 8-page pdf lesson which "through role-play and discussion, this lesson will help students understand the motives behind offending and re-offending and to develop problem-solving consequences that will help offenders learn a better way to behave. By developing restorative consequences, the classroom community can help the offender repair the harm he/she has caused and discourage the offender from re-offending. Students practice consensus building and explore the consequence-setting aspect of justice circles." | |
| Conflict resolution: Citizenship education for young people with special needs | 27-page PDF document which aims to, "develop positive models for dealing with conflict and to practise appropriate responses to deal with conflict." Includes examples of use of universal access symbols to increase retention and understanding when working with low literacy participants and students in special education classrooms. | |
| Conflict Resolution Education: A Guide to Implementing Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving Orgs | A manual in pdf format providing an overview of various models for conflict resolution education program implementation. The first chapter defines conflict as a natural condition and examines the origins of conflict, responses to conflict, and the outcomes of those responses. It introduces four approaches to implementing conflict resolution education. Each of the next four chapters discusses one of these approaches and presents examples of programs that use the approach. One chapter describes an approach to conflict resolution education characterized by devoting a specific time to teaching the foundation abilities, principles, and one or more of the problemsolving processes in a separate course or distinct curriculum. Another chapter describes an approach in which selected, trained individuals provide neutral third-party facilitation in conflict resolution. A chapter presents an approach that incorporates conflict resolution education into the core subject areas of the curriculum and into classroom management strategies, and another chapter presents a comprehensive whole-school methodology that builds on the previous approach. The next two chapters address conflict resolution education in settings other than traditional schools. The final three chapters address more overarching topics: conflict resolution research and evaluation; a developmental sequence of behavioral expectations in conflict resolution; and the process of developing, implementing, and sustaining a conflict resolution program. | |
| SCORE Quick Reference Guide to Peer Mediation for Students | 10-page guide for student peer mediators that reviews the mediation process and provides practice tips. Developed for use by the Student Conflict Resolution Experts (SCORE) program in Massachusetts as "a quick reference guide for students to accompany their training". | |
| Restorative justice programs in schools | Web-site created by the Marist Youth Care organization with information about restorative justice programs. "Marist Youth Care is a not for profit agency dealing with at risk young people. We draw our energy and motivation from the call of the gospel to assist socially disadvantaged people to take their rightful place in the community," from the Marist Youth Care website. | |
| Tale of two colleges, A: Diversity, conflict, and conflict resolution | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 5, Number 1, (Sept 2004), which shows, "how real people can achieve dramatically different outcomes depending on the strategies they devise and the methods they employ, the first chapter shows people digging in to their positions and trying to force the Other Person to give in, the second chapter shows similarly situated people using the problem-solving negotiation strategy popularized in the book Getting To Yes." | |
| Immigration & me: Lesson & activity excerpted from the Tanenbaum curriculum passages to immigration | 3-page PDF lesson plan in which students (grade 2-6) interview family members to investigate their immigration story and discover where family traditions came from. | |
| 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." |