Jane Sleigh, Cotham Grammar School, Bristol, England.
Molly Fernandes, St. John's High School, Bombay, India
The workshop run by Mr. Ruediger Teutsch from the Intercultural Centre, Vienna (Austria) provided an insight into the theory and practice of peace education and conflict resolution in an international network of schools. This project has been carried out by the Austrian ministry of education and the Intercultural Centre during the past 18 months.
Four continents were represented by the schools from
More than 1000 students and some 60 teachers were connected in the "International School Network: Peace Education & Conflict Resolution". Their task was to raise the awareness of problems and conflict areas in their school environment, to identify concrete conflicts and to analyse the situation, the behaviour and the attitudes of the involved people or parties. Finally the students and their teachers worked out proposals of conflict resolution and acted as mediators.
The students and teachers did not only exchange information about their school system, the cultural background and everyday life but focussed very strongly on the topic of conflict. Various methodological approaches to identify conflicts (e.g. action research, questionnaires, interviews, observation, taking photos, etc.) was distributed and discussed with the linked schools in Europe, Asia, Arica and North- and Southamerica.
The project was accompanied by three international training seminars for the teachers coordinating the projects in the schools all over the world. These seminars supported the teachers to plan their conflict resolution project according to the workphases "introduction", "awareness", "analysis", "dealing with conflicts" and "evaluation". But the teachers also acquired skills of action research, discussed the structure of international communication (e-mail, fax, letters, videos) and got familiar with various aspects of society, culture and history of their partner schools.
An international team of trainers and researchers planned and organized the project and carried out a study about the personal developement of students and teachers as well as the changes of the school organization due to the conflict resolution project.
In order to gain a better understanding of methodology of conflict management at school the participants of the workshop had the opportunity to take part in a simulation game that was succefully used by a number of schools all over the world.
The so-called "NASA game" simulates a situation of being ship-wrecked on the moon. In order to get back to the mother spaceship the crew has to make a ranking which of the 15 left articles (fm-transmitter, oxygen, water, guns etc.) is the most important. This task was carried out in small groups. Observers watched the decision making process and gave a detailed feedback on the behaviour of the groupmembers.
A film about bullying was presented. The "no-blame approach", used at several schools in the United Kingdom, involves all parties of a conflict. In the beginning information material about the conflict is collected. The conflict parties are interviewed but not accused for their behaviour. Then the students are helped to "step into the shoes" of the others to understand the underlying emotions and needs. Finally the students work out a plan how to deal with each other in the future. The last stept is a kind of evaluation after a week or two in order to see in which ways things have changed.
Conflict analysis was tried out. The participants were asked to choose an individual conflict either of their working situation or a personal one. Applying theories about the "components of conflict" (situation, behaviour, attitudes), Burton's "human needs theory" and the categories of "conflict styles" the participants developed not only a clear understanding about the methodology but also experienced the advantages of conflict management for their own life.
Brief inputs about the definition of conflict, the origins of conflict, the human needs theory and different conflict styles were presented to the working group. The theories were appreciated very much especially in connection with the opportunity to experience them in practice.
The following background papers are available:
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