WELCOME TO OUR SERIES!DR 7890 - Final Seminar in Dispute Resolution
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Thanks to HW Schools and WSU Extension for their support
A few details▪ We are happy to have you with us, and we
want to stay in touch (see sign-in sheet) ▪ Additional longer form readings may be
available for some sessions, will be sent to you via email
▪ We want to hear from you…time for discussion
▪ We’re still learning…constructive feedback is appreciated
▪ Follow us online at http://escro.us 2
WSU MASTER OF ARTS IN DISPUTE RESOLUTION
Come study with Us! - http://madr.comm.wayne.edu
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Building Conflict Competencies Through
Service-Learning
Bill Warters, Ph.D. Department of Communication
Wayne State University
Fostering Community Engagement
Presentation Agenda• What is Service-Learning?
• Some History – Personal/National • Benefits for Community Partners • Distinguishing Elements
• What is Special About Conflict as a Learning Opportunity?
• Conflict Resolution Service Learning • Some Examples • Your Ideas
• The Example Case of Community Boards
Prof. Donyale Griffin and WSU Students
Some stories from UCSC
▪ Intro to Feminism ▪ Resource Center for Nonviolence ▪ Conflict Resolution and Change
Course ▪World Pole Project ▪ FSH Mediation Project
Stories from Your Past?
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Service Learning History▪ There is a long history of support for
connecting service projects and formal learning
▪ A timeline of significant moments will provide a sense of the scope of this movement
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Recent History• 1980’s: National service efforts were launched at the
grassroots level, including the Campus Outreach Opportunity League and Campus Compact, which help mobilize service and service-learning programs in higher education. !
• 1990-1994: The National & Community Service Act: Congress passed the National and Community Service Act of 1990. The legislation authorized grants to schools to support service-learning and demonstration grants for national service programs to youth corps, nonprofits, and colleges and universities.
What is Service-Learning?
• Are integrated into the academic curriculum • Meet the needs of a community • Provide structured time for reflection • Help foster civic responsibility !
Adapted from the National and Community Service Trust Act, 1993
A method of teaching whereby students learn & develop through active participation in
organized service experiences that:
From the Faculty Perspective
Program Characteristics• Academic Experience
• Links the learning in the classroom to the activity in the community…and vice versa
• Reinforces what is learned in the classroom
• Designed with clear academic goals
Characteristics excerpted from Eyler, Janet and Giles, “Where’s the Learning in Service-Learning?” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.
Program Characteristics• Community Project
• Connects the student to the community in activities that are mutually beneficial
• Projects take place at the community level
• Ideally, students and community leaders participate in planning the project
Program Characteristics• Reflection Requirement
• Built-in opportunities to reflect on the experience
• Creates a deeper understanding and better application of subject matter
• Increases appreciation of problem and encourages solution analysis
• Includes spontaneous “teachable moments”
Some Reflection Activity Examples
▪ Personal Journals ▪ Directed Writings ▪ Classroom
Assessment Techniques
▪ Agency Presentations ▪ Presentation in a
Public Forum
▪ Ethical Case Studies ▪ Student Portfolios ▪ On-line Techniques ▪ Experiential Research
Paper ▪ Minute Papers ▪ Stand and Declare ▪ Letter to the Editor
(Hatcher & Bringle, 1997)
Program Characteristics• Civic Role and Appreciation
• Experiences have a higher purpose that emphasizes the reward and value in service
• Increases civic engagement of the University
• Gives the student a better understanding of their individual role in society
Americorps Video Contest
Grand prize winner in the 2010 AmeriCorps Video Contest. Author: Julie Walker
Service-Learning is…• Cleaning up a river bank is just
service. • Looking at water samples under a
microscope is just learning.
• Biology majors taking samples from local streams, analyzing the samples and then presenting the information to a pollution control agency is service-learning.
Service-Learning is NOT…
• Community Service • Volunteering
These are “Service”
• Experiential Learning • Hands-On Learning • Internships
These are “Learning”
Service Learning Opportunities May…
▪ Be an optional course component ▪ Be a required course component ▪ Be a group service project ▪ Extend work done by previous
participants
Benefits to Community Partners
▪ Provides short-term volunteers to meet community needs.
▪ Provides potential long-term volunteers and potential recruits for agency employment.
▪ Increases awareness of agency services and social issues within the community.
Benefits to Community Partners
▪ Provides community with substantial human resources to meet educational, human, safety, and environmental needs.
▪ The talent, energy, and enthusiasm of college students is applied to meet these ever increasing needs.
▪ Many students commit to a lifetime of volunteering after this experience, creating a democracy of participation.
LA AFSC Intern video
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CONFLICT AS A KEY LEARNING OPPORTUNITY
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What is so special about conflict for learning?
▪ George Herbert Mead noted that we spend much of our life going about routine activities that don’t require much thought
▪ Situations that make us have to stop and think are thus special opportunities
▪ Dewey articulated the value of learning by doing, not just reading/thinking
▪ Conflict motivates us to action/reaction, but often we are in a “less than optimal” learning state when we are in the midst of it
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Brazilian Educator Paulo Freire▪ Was interested in teaching literacy ▪ Found he was most effective when
he took community conflicts/problematic situations and used these as the basis for learning
▪ Special focus on informal education and helping the oppressed
▪ Students learned very rapidly!28
CONFLICT HANDLING IS AT THE CORE OF DEMOCRACY
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Picture is cover from a new book from David Mathews and the Kettering Foundation
Conflict!
democracyis.us project
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Raymond Shonholtz
Some CR Service Learning Examples▪ Fort Lauderdale Public Library - Peace Place
Special Collection ▪ Syracuse Symphony Process Consultation
Team ▪ English as a Second Language Conflict
Consultants (Miami) ▪ CPR Team for the Counseling Center (WSU) ▪ Conflict Coaching for Students (Temple
University) ▪ Others?
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George Mason University ICAR Program▪ APT - Applied Practice and Theory courses ▪ More recently - Conflict Service Learning
Intensives
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Service Learning Example – Mediator Mentors
Mediator Mentors Training Video
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EAST SIDE CONFLICT RESOLUTION OUTREACH
35A Project of Wayne State University’s Department of Communication’s Master of Arts in Dispute Resolution Program
An Expanded View of Community Engagement
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Community Boards
• An attempt to draw on past experiments with “popular justice” such as Polish “Good Neighbor Committees” and worker conciliation boards
• Based at the neighborhood level • Developed by Raymond Shonholtz
(consultant to MADR at the start) • First boards were in San Francisco • Seeking to promote civic engagement • Where Professor Warters got his start...
The model
Core Values of Community Boards
Regards conflict as an opportunity for change and growth;
Values and supports the peaceful expression of conflict within the community;
Values and supports individual and community acceptance of responsibility for a conflict;
Core Values of Community Boards (continued)
Values the voluntary resolution of conflict between parties;
Values diversity and respects and appreciates differences.
Should Dispute Resolution Be Attached to the Courts?▪ Most of our mediation
skills training these days is tied directly to the needs of court-affiliated mediation centers
▪ Students work to get certified to be on the court roster
▪ Most don’t mediate as much as they’d like 41
“From the viewpoint of community conciliation systems, the answer must be no.”
Discuss with a Neighbor?
Impact of BoardsPossible Effects on the Community of a Community Board
10 Principles for SL▪ 1. An effective program engages people in responsible
and challenging actions for the common good. ▪ 2. An effective program provides structured
opportunities for people to reflect critically on their service experience.
▪ 3. An effective program articulates clear service and learning goals for everyone involved.
▪ 4. An effective program allows for those with needs to define those needs.
▪ 5. An effective program clarifies the responsibilities of each person and organization involved.
Wingspread Principles of Good Practice for Combining Service and Learning (1989)
10 Principles▪ 6. An effective program matches service providers and
service needs through a process that recognizes changing circumstances.
▪ 7. An effective program expects genuine, active, and sustained organizational commitment.
▪ 8. An effective program includes training, supervision, monitoring, support, recognition, and evaluation to meet service and learning goals.
▪ 9. An effective program insures that the time commitment for service and learning is flexible, appropriate, and in the best interests of all involved.
▪ 10. An effective program is committed to program participation by and with diverse populations.
Can we come up with a sustainable model? !
What will it take?
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Additional Resources I will share
▪ Case Study of Community Boards “Neighbors as Peacemakers” by Kirp et al.
▪ Teaching for Justice collection on Service Learning for Peace Studies
▪ Article on the successes of the Mediator Mentors program from CRQ
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Thank You! Visit http://escro.us
to stay in touch
