Conflict resolution across the lifespan: the work of the ICCCR

Violence and alienation are common occurrences in the lives of many young people today. This article presents an overview of the work of the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR) at Teachers College, Columbia University, which is aimed at helping individuals, schools, communities, businesses, and governments better understand the nature of conflict and develop the skills and settings that enable them to resolve conflict fairly and constructively. The article begins by outlining the basic elements of the theoretical approach, and then presents three projects initiated by the ICCCR during the past decade, spanning from work with preschoolers to work with delegates to the United Nations. A set of practical guidelines for implementing conflict resolution interventions in schools and communities is detailed.

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IN 2001, 17.3% OF HIGH SCHOOL students in the United States admitted to carrying a weapon in the past 30 days (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2002). Reported incidents of school violence remain at an all-time high, with 1 in 20 students claiming to have missed school during the 30 days preceding the survey because they felt too unsafe to go. Alienated youth between the ages of 15-19 continue to commit suicide at an alarmingly increasing rate (Anderson, Kaufman, & Simon, 2001). And ongoing conflicts between parents, teachers, administrators, different racial and ethnic groups, and members of vastly disparate socioeconomic groups in schools continue to have destructive consequences on the quality of life and education of young people.

It would be a mistake to assume that the causes of such problems reside only or primarily in the school. Child abuse and neglect, a culture of violence, economic and social injustice, the easy availability of weapons, and many other factors contribute to the occurrence of personal and interpersonal conflict and violence but are largely not under school control. Nevertheless, there is much that schools and communities can do to prevent violence and alienation and counteract the harmful influences emanating from outside the school. In recent years it has been increasingly recognized that schools and communities have to change in basic ways if we are to raise and educate children so they are for rather than against one another, so they develop the ability to resolve their conflicts constructively rather than destructively, and so they are prepared to contribute to the development of a peaceful and just world.

In this article, we present an overview of the work of the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Teachers College, Columbia University. We begin by outlining the basic elements of the theoretical approach and then present three projects initiated by the Center during the past decade. We conclude by presenting a set of practical guidelines for implementing conflict resolution interventions in schools and communities. Our thesis is that schools, communities, and other organizations can create caring, cooperative environments characterized by a culture of peace and, in doing so, can prevent much of the violence within our communities.

The ICCCR

The International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR) was founded in 1986 by Professor Emeritus Morton Deutsch, a world-renowned scholar in conflict resolution. In 1988, Ellen Raider, a renowned and innovative teacher, practitioner, and social activist, joined the Center. Together with Dr. Deutsch, they forged an approach to work in conflict resolution that carefully integrated theory and practice.

The Center's mission is an educational one: to help individuals, schools, communities, businesses, and governments better understand the nature of conflict and develop the skills and settings that enable them to resolve conflict fairly and constructively. The ICCCR particularly emphasizes the importance of the social, cultural, organizational, and institutional contexts within which conflicts occur. The Center's philosophy links theory and research closely with practice. Consequently, it employs a "reflective scholar-practitioner" model in its many scholarly, educational, and practical endeavors.

The basic elements of the ICCCR's theoretical approach are as follows:

* Conflict is a naturally occurring phenomenon that has both constructive and destructive potential, depending on how it is managed. Engaging in conflict tends to generate anxiety in many people who associate it with negative or violent outcomes, which leads to fight-or-flight responses. In fact, conflict can provide a uniquely human opportunity to learn about ourselves and others, to motivate necessary changes in the status quo, to challenge obsolete ways of thinking, relating, working, and to innovate. Thus, the objective is not to eliminate conflict, but to help establish the skills and settings for its constructive resolution.

* Conflict behavior is a function of the person x the environment (Lewin, 1947). Behavior is determined by the interplay between certain characteristics of the person (such as their needs, motives, expectations, ability to control their impulses, knowledge, attitudes, and skills) and the characteristics of the situation (the norms, roles, history of relations, task and reward structures, culture, availability of weapons, etc.). Therefore, we target change in both people and in the systems in which they live and work.