SCHOOL OF EDUCATION OFFERS NEW DEGREE IN CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND PEACEABLE SCHOOLS

Lesley's School of Education is offering what may be the first graduate degree in the country that combines teacher education with conflict resolution and peacemaking.

Twenty students began the M.Ed. in Conflict Resolution and Peaceable Schools program this February with a ten-day residency session. Designed for working people, primarily full-time educators, the residency launched an intensive weekend format of core courses, in which the students meet one Saturday a month with a mentor. The students will then reassemble for a second residency in July.

The graduate program in Conflict Resolution and Peaceable Schools is the result of a collaboration between Lesley and the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP), part of Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR), which helps schools teach and embody nonviolent conflict resolution and positive intercultural relations. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor in the School of Education, and John Braman, director of the Center for Peaceable Schools, initiated the program development in cooperation with Linda Lantieri, director of RCCP.

"The program is grounded in a belief that our work is collaborative," says Carlsson-Paige, "and that peace and non-violence grow and are associated with collaboration." She notes that many people have been, and are involved in this project, including Dean William Dandridge and Lesley faculty members Roberta Jackson, Marjorie Jones, Anita Landa, and Daniel Yalowitz.

The organizers worked for two years to develop the program, supported by a $150,000 grant from the SURDNA Foundation, a New York City based family foundation supporting social responsibility efforts. "The program is evolving and changing," says Carlsson-Paige. "We are learning as we go, and we hope that the students will be part of that process."

The program requires the students to take at least one internship in a RCCP school, in which they will work with mentors expert in the area of conflict resolution. "We want to stop the chain of cause and effect that often gets called violence," says Braman. "These are the precursors to students acting out in the classroom. We're being preventive."

Carlsson-Paige sees a broader future for the graduate program in Conflict Resolution and Peaceable Schools, saying, "We're beginning with a separate program, but our goal, ultimately, is to bring conflict resolution teaching into teacher education in general, integrating these ideas and practices."