Synthesis and Application to Practice
Overview
Chapter ten in the primary text summarizes the takeaways from all six content perspectives and organizes them in a way that allows comparative analysis. It includes a chart where students can view the perspectives together in relation to four common questions: How is conflict understood; where does a practitioner focus their attention; what are particular insights; and what are the more likely outcomes or endpoints to a conflict process. This, in turn, allows a more holistic reflection on each perspective and on the value of approaching conflict work from multiple perspectives.
Recognizing that every conflict situation has unique elements, this is also an opportunity to examine the particular usefulness and limitations of each perspective. You can introduce different case scenarios and discuss how each perspective might yield different insights into the conflict. This activity also prepares students for the final assignment – a summative case analysis (which is located in the general course document folder) that calls on students to apply multiple perspectives to analyze the same conflict situation (here, the 1957 film 12 Angry Men).
Primary readings:
Perspectives on Conflict, chapter 10 – Synthesis and Application