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Trainers Conflict Resolution Bookshelf

Note: Each issue of our Conflict Management in Higher Education Report includes some reviews of books and resources. See our table of contents to past resource reviews for quick access.

On this page we provide somewhat random selection of books on topics we think might interest trainers working in our field.

Recently Released - Mediation-related

From Our Bookshelf

Title: Working Anger: Preventing and Resolving Conflict on the Job

By: Potter-Efron, Ronald T.
Date: 1998
Ron Potter-Efron's expertise is in anger management and life skills. In Working Anger, he details the problems that arise when we fail to differentiate between conflicts at work and at home and offers practical suggestions for preventing unnecessary conflicts and resolving disagreements when they do arise. -New Harginger Publications
Publisher: New Harbinger Publisher
Pages: 176
ISBN/ISSN: ISBN: 1572241195
Obtain From: major booksellers

Title: Toward a Nonviolent Campus Climate: Conflict Resolution

By: California Community Colleges Academic Senate
Date: 1996
Changes in the demographics of the student population, the political climate, the economic health of CA and the nation, and the availability of public support services have contributed to an emerging climate of violence as a means of problem solving or as a consequence of frustration. Community college faculty and staff may protect their students and themselves by understanding and recognizing the perspectives of students and adopting intervention approaches that emphasize communication skills and conflict resolution techniques rather than authoritative force. Effective conflict resolution involves active listening and an understanding of legal, personal, and institutional rights and responsibilities. Community college faculty are in a unique position to explore innovative approaches to conflict resolution, such as the introduction of collaborative learning in the classroom. Faculty and staff must develop skills that encompass direct, assertive expression, effective listening, awareness of non-verbal communication, accurate descriptions of behavior, and accurate assessments of one's own perceptions. Possible approaches for faculty and staff development in the area of conflict resolution include offering training seminars, creating and disseminating materials and resources on conflict resolution, establishing an emergency crisis team, integrating conflict resolution in the curriculum, and promoting campus safety. Finally, clear student discipline policies identifying the expected standard of student conduct should exist and be enforced. (TGI)
Publisher: Sacramento: California Community Colleges Academic Senate Educational Policies Committee
Pages: 13
Obtain From: ERIC

Title: Middle-of-the-Road Activists: Carrie Chapman Catt and the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War

By: Schott, Linda
Date: 1996
The National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War (NCCCW) was largely an educational organization that had been developed by other groups and activists. Due to its role as an educational organization, the NCCCW increased its participants' knowledge but did not serve significantly to advance their skills. The structure of NCCCW conferences promoted the passive acquisition of knowledge, to which most women would not otherwise have had access, instead of political action and leadership. The NCCCW also made no attempt to include working-class women or women of color and drew its membership almost entirely from middle-class European American women. Moderate in its policies and limited in its membership, the NCCW by defining itself as "middle-of-the-road," implicitly marginalized other women and other political positions.
Publisher: Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers
Pages: 21-Jan
ISBN/ISSN: Blackwell Publishers, Libraries

Title: Reaching for Higher Ground in Conflict Resolution: Tools for Powerful Groups and Communities

By: Dukes, E. Franklin; Piscolish, Marina A.; Stephens, John B.
Date: 2000
This book includes a wealth of examples and practical advice on how to guide groups to: articulate the values they hold dear, develop the principles that will guide their efforts, and clarify the shared expectations that will be honored throughout their work. Here you will find the knowledge and learn the skills necessary to demystify and facilitate conflict transformation and successful group problem solving.
Publisher: San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Pages: 288
ISBN/ISSN: ISBN: 0-7879-5058-0
Obtain From: Major booksellers, Libraries, Jossey-Bass

Title: Dynamics of Crisis Intervention: Loss As the Common Denominator, The

By: Mitchell, Juliann Whetsell
Date: 1999
Mitchell, a licensed psychologist, describes the basic aspects of crisis intervention, including listening and verbal skills; creating a sense of stability and structure; understanding nonverbal behaviors; identifying and accessing resources; and gender, race, and cultural issues. -Book News,Inc.
Publisher: Charles C. Thomas Pub Ltd.
ISBN/ISSN: ISBN: 0398069158
Obtain From: major booksellers

Title: Higher Education as Preparation for the Handling of Controversial Issues

By: Collier, K. G.
Date: 1984
Higher education focuses largely on acquisition of knowledge and development of skills of rigorous argument, rarely giving attention to subjective perceptions or subjective value assumptions, in either the parties of a controversy or the student himself. Elements of the college curriculum, when properly developed, can help students identify subjective factors. (MSE)
Publisher:

Title: Developing Collaborative Skills in College Students

By: Bosworth, Kris
Date: 1994
Social skills needed for effective collaborative learning by college students are discussed, including skills in interpersonal interaction, group building and management, inquiry, conflict resolution, and synthesis and presentation. Five instructional strategies to enhance students' collaborative skills are described: identification, demonstration, modeling, performance feedback, and reflection. (MSE)
Publisher:
Pages: 25-31

Title: Legal Studies and Mediation

By: D'Errico, Peter; Katsh, Ethan; Rifkin, Janet
Date: 1980
The dispute resolution center at the University of Massachusetts illustrates how a legal studies program can form the basis for conflict resolution in the local community as well as on campus. The center draws heavily on the skills and experience of individuals in both the academic and public sectors.
Publisher:
Pages: 48-55

Title: Building a Mediation and Conflict Resolution Studies Curriculum Based on Competency

By: Fuller, Rex M.
Date: 1998
David Pearce Snyder has predicted that "if a significant number of major mainstream institutions do not undertake publicly acknowledged initiatives to dramatically improve the relevance of their curriculums, the rigor of their standards, and the productivity of their operations...the marketplace will have begun to make available so many effective alternatives for acquiring formal higher-order skills that traditional colleges and universities will quickly come to be regarded as the old-fashioned, outdated, expensive source of postsecondary schooling." This paper discusses a program in Conflict and Mediation Studies within the School of Speech Communication at James Madison University in Virginia, which was initiated in response to the perception that the university is undergoing a radical change in the way teaching and learning are understood. The paper describes the methodology of how the program proceeded: relevant faculty was assembled and a consensus reached; outcome objective statements were written for each of the four courses being changed; instruments and activities concerned with these outcome statements will be created; and the development of instructional materials will be in direct response to specific outcome objective statements. According to the paper, this program of curriculum revision dramatically improves the relevance of the curriculum, increases the rigor of performance standards, and will contribute to the ability to clearly and precisely articulate the knowledge, skills, and competencies defining the learning environment. Appended are goal statements and outcome objective statements for the four courses.(Contains 10 references.)
Publisher: ERIC Clearinghouse ED426422

Title: Conflict, Power and Persuasion: Negotiating Effectively (2nd edition)

By: Hoffman, Ben
Date: 1992
Useful for planning a negotiation, and for evaluation and improving your own skills, this book puts it all together in a straightforward easily-read style. (Samuel F. Hughes)
Publisher: North York: Captus Press
ISBN/ISSN: ISBN: 1895712181
Obtain From: Libraries.

Title: Reflections on Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot Students' Perceptions of the Cyprus Conflict: Implications for Peace Education

By: Erduran, Sibel
Date: 1996
This study traces Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot students' perceptions of the Cyprus conflict. The data comes from a 1993 Harvard workshop which included 11 Turkish Cypriot and 38 Greek Cypriot students. The workshop was a collaboration of Harvard's Conflict Management Group, AMIDEAST, and US AID. The objective of the workshop was to teach students effective negotiation skills, such as identification of students' perceptions. The primary purpose of the study was to determine how perceptions of involved parties compared. Written workshop products were coded for certain features and examined. Results indicate that students' perceptions differed greatly but their willingness to communicate and seek solutions that would best suit both parties' interests suggest that the negotiation skills targeted towards these ends were initiated. Investigations based on psychology of ethnic and political violence can provide access to individuals' perceptions and, when coupled with other strategies of conflict resolution, can be vital in attaining peace education. (EH)
Publisher: New York, NY: American Educational Research Association
Pages: 30
Obtain From: ERIC

Title: Viewpoints: A Guide To Conflict Resolution and Decision Making for Adolescents

By: Guerra, Nancy G. ; Moore, Ann ; Slaby, Ronald G.
Date: 1990
This book presents a 10-lesson curriculum designed to teach social problem-solving skills, increase impulse control, promote empathy, and develop prosocial attitudes in adolescents. "The Viewpoints curriculum and the teacher's guide are excellent and practical resources for teaching social problem solving. The student workbook uses language that should be easily understood by adolescents. It contains clear definitions of concepts, provides engaging examples, and allows the students to work on various interpersonal problems."-- Denis G. Sukhodolsky, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy
Publisher: Research Press

Title: Using Culture To Understand Conflict Within a University: Professional Versus Academic Values in University Professional Schools in Australia

By: Harman, Kay M.
Date: 1989
The idea that professional schools represent a sector where two particular sets of conflicting norms are clearly apparent is discussed. Teaching staff in university professional schools inhabit an ambivalent cultural world. Their dual mandate requires commitment to traditional academic norms and scholarship through the disciplines along with commitment to the transmission of distinctly vocational skills and attitudes. Conflicts commonly experienced by teaching staff in the schools of medicine, law, social studies, music, education, and environmental planning at the University of Melbourne are examined. Three sections look at the following: (1) tensions between teaching and research (balancing theory and practice, conflicting ideologies); (2) tensions induced by the influence of the practicing professions on professional schools (courses, divided loyalties involving professional association activity); and (3) tensions between professional schools and nonprofessional fields (involvement in university matters, university ignorance of professional school activity). Findings suggest that university leaders who are mindful of the cultural origins of and are sensitive to the tensions between the conflicting roles are more likely to develop strategies that minimize symbolic separation and ensure the survival and growth of both the academic-scholarly and practice-oriented cultures. Contains 11 references. (Author/SM)
Publisher:

Title: Coping with International Conflict: A Systematic Approach to Influence in International Negotiation

By: Fisher, Roger, ed.; Schneider, Andrea K.; Borgwardt, Elizabeth
Date: 1996
This text combines the clear, concise, proven principles and practice of conflict management from Fisher's bestseller Getting to Yes with the newest problem-solving approaches to international relations. Many of the concepts presented grew out of materials Fisher and his colleagues use in their international consulting work to teach problem-solving and conflict management skills to diplomats and heads of state involved in contentious international disputes. Exercises, applications, examples, readings, and anecdotes guide readers through the processes of diagnosing and prescribing approaches to real-world conflicts. -Amazon.com
Publisher: Prentice-Hall
Pages: 287
ISBN/ISSN: ISBN: 0135916372
Obtain From: Major booksellers and libraries.

Title: Integrating the Undergraduate Experience: A Course on Environmental Dispute Resolution

By: Kaplan, Abram W.
Date: 1998
This paper describes a rigorous undergraduate course on environmental dispute resolution. Students get hands-on experience in negotiation cases, developing skills and building theoretical understanding through a series of exercises. With this foundation, the students advance to an extended role-playing case study on oil exploration in the Ecuadorian rain forest. The course provides an integration function both in terms of understanding environmental issues, but also in modeling reality, encouraging action, and building process tools that are essential in addressing environmental and social challenges facing the planet.
Publisher: New York: Plenum Press
Pages: 369-379
ISBN/ISSN: Plenum Press, Libraries