Conflict Resolution Education - National Criminal Justice Reference ...

Chapter 5: Peaceable School Approach
Peaceable School: A comprehensive whole-school methodology
that builds on the peaceable classroom approach by
using conflict resolution as a system of operation for managing
the school as well as the classroom. Conflict resolution
principles and processes are learned and utilized by every
member of the school community—librarians, teachers,
counselors, students, principals, and parents.
The peaceable school approach integrates conflict
resolution into the operation of the school. Every
member of the school community learns and uses
conflict resolution concepts and skills. Peaceable
school climates reflect caring, honesty, cooperation,
and appreciation for diversity. As comprehensive
whole-school programs, peaceable schools
incorporate:
♦ Cooperative learning environments.
♦ Direct instruction and practice of conflict
resolution skills and processes.
♦ Noncoercive school and classroom management
systems.
♦ Integration of conflict resolution concepts and
skills into the curriculum.
Peaceable school programs challenge youth and
adults to believe that a nonviolent, diverse society
is a realistic and desirable goal. Peaceable schools
value and encourage diversity and promote peacemaking
as the normative behavior of adults and
students. Participants in the peaceable school apply
conflict resolution skills to address interpersonal
and intergroup problems and issues that confront
students, faculty, administrators, and parents. The
objectives of peacemaking are to achieve personal,
group, and institutional goals and to maintain cooperative
relationships.
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In the peaceable school, the pervasive
theme touching the interactions between
students, between students and adults, and
between adults is the value of human dignity
and self-esteem. 1
The Community Board Program (CBP) was one
of the first to recognize the value of moving beyond
the peer mediation approach to a whole-school
approach to conflict resolution education within
schools and across school districts. Recognizing
that practice in communication and problem-solving
skills in the classroom would better prepare students
to deal constructively with conflict and to use
existing peer mediation programs, CBP developed
elementary and secondary classroom curriculums,
shifting from an approach that reacts to school conflicts
(peer mediation) to one that seeks to prevent
them. To change fundamental beliefs about conflict
and systems for dealing with conflict, CBP sought
to introduce as many school-related personnel as
possible to conflict resolution education and to train
them in conflict resolution concepts and skills.
The peaceable school approach incorporates the
process curriculum, mediation, and peaceable
classroom approaches. The peaceable classroom
is the unit block of the peaceable school because
it is where students gain the knowledge and skills
needed to resolve conflicts creatively and where
the majority of conflicts are addressed. 2
The success of conflict resolution in the peaceable
school program depends on the school’s social climate.
Peaceable school programs offer all members
of the school community training in the problemsolving
processes of conflict resolution. Consensus