General Course Documents

Introduction for Instructors

The mastery of conflict practice requires more than understanding technical skills. It requires an understanding of the many different layers, dimensions and dynamics of conflict itself. It also requires the capacity for reflective insight into ourselves as students, practitioners, (and teachers), into the people with whom we work and into the broader contexts within which conflict arises. The better we understand these layers, dimensions, dynamics and insights, the better able we are to notice, appreciate and make more informed choices about the many avenues available when working with, through and responding to conflict. Said differently, mastery of conflict practice includes continuously cultivating a wholistic understanding of conflict and our own relation to it.

This material is not designed as a skills class or training manual per se, nor is it an encyclopedic study of all that is known about conflict. Instead, its purpose is to explore a range of ways to build greater insight into conflict. In the best sense of the words, it is designed to invite, challenge, and provoke participants to think more broadly, deeply, and clearly about themselves, about the complex and multi-faceted nature of their work, and about the complexity and richness of the parties they serve. Having said this, the materials do include activities and assignments that purposefully connect theory to practice and allow an ongoing examination of the question “so what”?

This material has been delivered in a range of formats to a variety of audiences. In law schools, it has been taught as a full-semester (optional JD and required DR certificate) course, as an intensive institute course, and as one or more modules in other DR courses such as negotiation and mediation. In business, education, public administration and non-profit management programs (such as MA, MBA, MPA, MNM, EdD, and PhD), it has been taught in a modified form as a semester course on conflict and change management and has informed modules in critical thinking courses. Among practitioners, it has been delivered as a master class, as a CLE course, and as a stand-alone or part of other professional trainings, seminars and workshops.

What all this means for you, the instructor: This material can be adapted to fit a variety of educational contexts. Regardless of context, it is intended to allow you to engage participants in a serious examination of ideas and lived experiences that go beyond the simple study of “theories.” Its deeper purpose is to engage participants in a process of critical reflection and growth about the range of beliefs, assumptions, and perspectives (and, yes, theories) that shape and constrain how we each approach our own conflict practice when working with real people, real organizations, real institutions, and real communities.