Social Commentary
Thank a Teacher Day on Nov 25th - StoryCorps Listens to Teachers
Posted by CR Ed on Nov 16, 11
The StoryCorps project is hosting a “Thank a Teacher” day on November 25th as part of the National Day of Listening. StoryCorps hopes to get citizen-led interviews of teachers in every state in the United States. Seems like a great project for young journalists and researchers and an opportunity for administrators to appreciate some of the great teachers they know.
The Term Bullying Has Little Resonance with Teens
Posted by CR Ed on Dec 09, 10
Danah Boyd has written a very insightful piece on how teens experience conflict and how the term “bullying” is not working well in terms of connecting with them. A case example is provided of two girls (Janiya and Precious) who have a conflict that is long-standing and unresolved. It is definitely worth reading. As she note in the concluding paragraph:
Combating bullying is not going to be easy, but it’s definitely not going to happen if we don’t dive deep in the mess that underpins it and surrounds it. Lectures by uncool old people like me aren’t going to make teens who are engaged in dramas think twice about what they’re doing. And, for that matter, using the term “bullying” is also not going to help at all either. We need interventions that focus on building empathy, identifying escalation, and techniques for stopping the cycles of abuse. We need to create environments where young people don’t get validated for negative attention and where they don’t see relationship drama as part of normal adult life. The issues here are systemic.
HR 4000 - Conflict Resolution and Mediation Act of 2009
Posted by CR Ed on Dec 06, 09
On November 2, 2009, House Democrat Bobby Rush from Illinois introduced a proposed Bill that would support mediation and conflict resolution programs in schools. It has been referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor. You can view the text of the bill here.
Teachings Revolving Door problem
Posted by CR Ed on Jan 31, 09
A recent article in Rethinking Schools focuses attention on the ongoing problem of teachers leaving the profession within 3-5 years of starting. The article entitled Teachings Revolving Door points to a number of different explanations for the problem, and as Conflict Resolution in Education advocates know, classroom conflict and management challenges is one of these drivers. Clearly, we need to work on many levels to improve the situation, including helping to prepare new teachers with realistic and practical skills for handling challenging situations. The costs to young people, especially in urban schools, is particularly high, as they most often end up with the most inexperienced teachers due to the revolving door. But, as school administrators know, lack of teacher retention has costs in other ways as well. As the article points out, “Nationwide, teacher turnover costs $7.3 billion a year, according to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. In some districts, the costs are shockingly high. In Milwaukee, the average cost per teacher who left was $15,325, according to the commission. In Chicago, the average cost was $17,872, with the total cost to the district about $86 million per year.” Conflict Resolution in Education is part of the solution, but only if we continue to extend the work and make sure it remains relevant to the actual conditions teachers face as they begin their careers.
School Administrators Podcast
Posted by CRE Assistant on Nov 06, 08
A new Web site sponsored by McGraw-Hill Education’s Urban Advisory Resource is directed towards school administrators, especially those working in urban areas. The forum, District Leader’s Podcast districtleaderspodcast.org, is “the only national podcast created expressly for district leaders. Many features included are interviews each week with different district leaders from around the country.” There are 25 sessions available to listen to, with the most recent being a Superintendent from a school district in Texas. Many of the podcasts deal with violence and delinquency in schools and conflict resolution techniques.
Revisiting the School-Based Violence Prevention Debate?
Posted by CR Ed on Sep 03, 08
Administrators new to the field of conflict resolution may be interested in reviewing a debate that occurred back in 1993-94 regarding the role and effectiveness of school-based violence prevention and conflict resolution programs. The debate was played out in the journal Health Affairs. To see the articles in question, try this link to their archives search tool.
We’ve come a long way since then in terms of research and sophistication in program design and delivery, but it is interesting to review the issues in a historical perspective.
Public Videos on Peer Mediation are Growing
Posted by CR Ed on Mar 22, 08
With the growth of YouTube as a medium of expression and information sharing, we are also seeing it used to promote Peer Mediation activity. Here are some examples that might inspire creative content producers at your school.
Romeo High School in Michigan (RHS) Peer Mediation Video (8:37) This video pulls together various clips from a High School mediation program, including providing evidence of increased awareness about the program. Nicely done.
Also, see this informative report on the program available as a pdf. It includes statistics on the program and sample materials used by the student mediators.
More Peer Mediation Club Activities at RHS (6:12) This video shows more of the activities the peer mediation students do interacting with other schools in the district.
Peer Mediation (better than a Light Saber Battle to the Death?) (3:37) This humorous student-produced video promotes peer mediation in their school.
Los Angeles Dispute Resolution Services (DRS) Peer Mediation Video (10:55) This video documents some systemwide activities in Los Angeles County.
Hoku Kubota Peer Mediation Training (a Hawaiian School) (2:00)
This video provides a quick glimpse at a mediation training happening in a Hawaiian school, giving a sense that mediation is happening “all over” the world.
For an even more international feel, check out this video on a college peer mediation program in the Netherlands. Hope you speak Dutch!
Peer Mediation op College De Brink 2008 (in Dutch!) (8:58)
NYC Ombuds Report Notes Inadequate Support for Conflict Resolution in NYC Schools
Posted by CR Ed on Mar 05, 08
A February 2007 report issued by the NYC Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum notes that “the DOE is not doing enough to ensure that conflict resolution training and services are supported in city schools.” This conclusion is based on a survey of 158 administrators designed to glean administrators’ perspective on DOE school safety policies, including the degree to which those policies cultivate an atmosphere conducive to teaching and learning. The survey also asked administrators for the rates of incidents and superintendent suspensions in their schools during the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 school years. Finally, the survey asked administrators about the number of teachers in their schools who had received conflict resolution training and the degree to which conflict resolution training and programming is a part of day-to-day life in their schools. The full report, entitled Between Policy and Reality: School Administrators Critical of Department of Education School Safety Policy, is available online. A primary concern is that there has been a shift away for social-emotional learning and conflict resolution education and toward a policing and “get tough” policy despite explicit support for CRE.
As noted in the report, “The New York City Department of Education’s Citywide Standards of Discipline and Intervention Measures state that ‘[a]dministrators, teachers, counselors, and other school staff are expected to engage with students, including students with disabilities, in intervention and prevention strategies that address the student’s behavioral issues…and family circumstances: social/emotional learning, such as conflict resolution/mediation/negotiation…’. To this end, the DOE offers voluntary conflict resolution professional development training for teachers and administrators. Additionally, the state provides various funding streams for complementary programming, such as the Violence Prevention and Extended Day grant.”
A couple of key findings related to teacher training in Conflict Resolution:
98 percent of high school administrators report that no teachers, or just “a few”, in their schools have received any conflict education and/or resolution training.
82 percent of administrators at all levels report that no teachers, or just “a few”, have received conflict education and/or resolution training.
The Report cites New York University Professor of Education Pedro Noguera’s warning that, “[s]chools that rely on security guards and metal detectors to create safety may end up creating an environment that is so repressive that it is no longer conducive to learning.” Referring to the success of community policing initiatives, Prof. Noguera asserts that safety is “ultimately a by-product of social relationships and from the willingness of the members of a community to look out for each other and hold one another accountable.”
The Public Advocate’s office followed up with a second study of conflict resolution service providers. The report from this study, released in May of 2007 is entitled Conflict Unresolved: DOE Fails to Recognize What Works in School Safety and Student Achievement. A quick review of this study is posted in our Researcher’s Blog.
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