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

Conflict Resolution & Peace Education: Proven Impacts

  • Presented by: Tricia S. Jones Ph.D.
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Virginia Tech Shooting: Lessons for Dismantling Norms About Violence

  • Presented by: Huey-li Li and Michiko Pence
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Lessons for Helping Students Develop Emotional Awareness to Support CRE

  • Presented by: Christa M. Tinari
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Conflict Transformation Education for At-Risk Youth: Connecting With Kids

  • Presented by: Sarah Bernhardt
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State-wide Initiatives in New York and Ohio: Creating Positive Learning Environments

  • Presented by: Mark Barth, Mary Lou Rush and Cheryl Kish
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Restorative Justice

  • Presented by: Gary Shaw
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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
Multiple Responses, Promising Results: Evidence-Based, Nonpunitive Alternatives To Zero Tolerance Research brief by Child Trends that finds that zero tolerance school discipline policies have not been proven effective by research and may have negative effects, making students more likely to drop out and less likely to graduate on time. Instead, the brief recommends the use of nonpunitive disciplinary action, such as behavior interventions, social skills classes, and character education.
Practicing peace: A peace education module for standards 4 through 6 in Solomon Islands 87-page word document which presents peace education for the Solomon Islands context. "The primary method used in peace education is generally referred to as a "facilitated" or "interactive" model of teaching. In this method, the teacher becomes a facilitator of learning and a co-learner with the students. Students and teachers use experiential strategies to practice skills for peace. There is a shift in the value placed on being a teacher. Using the facilitated processes of conflict resolution and peace education, teachers and students learn together and teach each other." Covered areas include: Interpersonal skills; Understanding and accepting differences; Children's rights; Building community and Mediation.
Companion: A campaign guide about education and learning for change in diversity, human rights ... 80-page PDF manual, "designed to help those involved in learning for democracy and learning for change. The issues it raises and the methods which are proposed have been developed as a part of the campaign, but the manual can and should be used after the formal end of the campaign ... This is not a campaign for young people. It is a campaign by young people. The slogan of the campaign "All different, All equal" combines the freedom of diversity and the equality of rights, and it reflects the Council of Europe philosophy in tackling all forms of discrimination and exclusion."
Ferdinand the bull: The story of a bull who wouldn't fight: Resource guide for teachers on NV 23-page pdf study guide created to accompany "The Hudson Vagabond Puppets’ production of Ferdinand tthe Bull [which] can serve as a focus point for an indepth look at conflict resolution in the classroom. The performance will end with a brief lecture-demonstration developed in conjunction with ENACT, a not-for-profit organization that teaches social skills to young people."
PROS: Peaceful resolution for Oklahoma [high school] students 106-page PDF manual designed to help teachers and trainers teach high school students the art of peer mediation. Includes definitions, exercises to improve communication skills, leadership and problem solving.
Community justice in the campus setting Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 3, Number 1, (Oct 2002), which examines the idea of community justice and how it can be used on college campuses to address student misconduct and improve socialization. Includes bibliography.
Good Practice Guidelines for Peer Mediation Initiatives A one-page summary of guidelines for best practice for peer mediation program initiatives. Based on a larger evaluation of Peer Mediation Programs in New South Wales Government Schools published in 2003
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."
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.
Peer mediation training for schools: Best practice guidelines (UK) 8-page Word document which presents best practice guidelines developed by the Peer Mediation Network in the UK. Paper begins with a definition of peer mediation and then outlines best practices for many aspects of training.
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.
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.
Making the case for campus mediation Pdf article originally published in The Fourth R, Vol. 55, (Feb/March 1995) presenting arguments to assist organizers of college and university mediation programs who often must make a case for their programs to reluctant administrators.
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."
Collaboration across fields: Implementation and sustainability of SEL, CRE, PE and CE 73-page PDF conference reader from the two-day summit, "Collaboration across Fields: Implementation and Sustainability of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Conflict Resolution Education (CRE), Peace Education (PE), and Citizenship Education (CE), held in Cleveland, Ohio on June 19th and 20th, 2009. The conference "brought together government representatives from among the 50 states and invited countries (Ghana, Kenya, Montenegro, Philippines) and their non-governmental organization partners. Organizations were invited because of their interest in developing legislation and policy in peace education, social and emotional learning, conflict resolution education, and/or civics education and their interest in securing ways to strengthen implementation and achieve sustainability of these efforts ... this capacity building summit offered a dynamic opportunity to develop a global infrastructure to advance the work in the fields of conflict resolution education, peace education, social and emotional learning, and citizenship education. The summit brought together policymakers, researchers and educators representing regions across the United States and select member countries of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict GPPAC). These national and international guests exchanged successful macro level policy design and implementation models at the state-wide or national level, and macro level evaluation methodology and tools for states and countries. Specific areas of focus included: Teacher education, research and evaluation, and policy implementation options for primary, elementary and secondary education at the national or state levels."
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."
Inter-agency P.E.P.: Skills for constructive living: Teacher activity book 361-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 teacher's main resource it has a lesson-by-lesson curriculum for formal schooling structured according to the children's cognitive and emotional development."
Extending campus conflict resolution efforts beyond the mediation table Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 2, Number 3, (May 2002), which "describes creative responses to campus conflict that don't rely on mediation as their central strategy or approach, providing links to online examples when available."
Inter-agency P.E.P.: Skills for constructive living: Background notes for teachers 40-page pdf 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 manual is a "summary of the major points covered in the training sessions to be used as a reference."
Restorative justice in the school setting: A whole school approach 12-page PDF paper promoting the teaching of restorative justice in schools. "Restorative justice is a philosophy and a set of practices that embraces the right blend between a high degree of discipline that encompasses clear expectations, limits and consequences and a high degree of support and nurturance."