Christina Parker

Constructive Conflict Talk in Classrooms: Divergent Approaches to Addressing Divergent Perspectives

Abstract Dialogue about social and political conflicts is a key element of democratic citizenship education that is frequently advocated in scholarship but rarely fully implemented, especially in classrooms populated by ethnically and economically heterogeneous students. Qualitative case studies describe the contrasting ways 2 primary and 2 middle-grade teachers in urban Canadian public schools infused conflict dialogue pedagogies into their implemented curricula. These lessons, introducing conflict communication skills and/or content knowledge embodying conflicting viewpoints as learning opportunities, actively engaged a wide range of students. At the same time, even these purposively selected teachers did not often facilitate sustained, inclusive, critical, and imaginative exchange or deliberation about heartfelt disagreements, nor did they probe the diversity and equity questions surrounding these issues. The case studies illustrate a democratic education dilemma: Even in the classrooms of skilled and committed teachers, opportunities for recognition of contrasting perspectives and discussion of social conflicts may not necessarily develop into sustained democratic dialogue nor interrupt prevailing patterns of disengagement and inequity.

Pedagogical Tools for Peacebuilding Education: Engaging and Empathizing With Diverse Perspectives in Multicultural Elementary Classrooms

Abstract This qualitative study used classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and document analysis to examine the degree to which peacebuilding dialogue processes were implemented in 3 elementary school classrooms and how diverse students, particularly newcomer immigrants, experienced these pedagogies. The study critically examines how ethnocultural minority immigrant students aged 9 to 13 responded to conflictual issues pedagogies and discussions and how such pedagogies facilitated inclusive spaces for all students to participate in the curricula. The study’s results show that when content was explicitly linked to students’ identities and experiences, opportunities for democratic peacebuilding inclusion increased. In this research, diverse students’ classroom participation was influenced by various peacebuilding pedagogies, particularly when teachers engaged with conflictual issues in ways that encouraged students to develop acceptance and empathy for other perspectives. Using peacebuilding dialogue pedagogies to guide curriculum engagement with alternative viewpoints may contribute to diverse students’ inclusion in the classroom.

Conflict, Diversity, and The Inclusion of Student Voices

Today’s dominant, mainstream curriculum teaches students “codes” or “cultures of power” (Delpit, 1988). In Delpit’s view, these are skills and behaviours that people need to successfully complete school and then succeed in the workplace; they include communication and writing skills, critical thinking, mannerisms, and culturally appropriate behaviour.

Identity Connections: Conflictual Issues Across Time, Space, and Culture

Teachers can use curriculum content to connect with students’ experiences and identities. The three teachers in this book presented different—and controversial— historical, religious, political, and identity-linked issues, positioning them as conflictual in order to develop connections with students’ experiences and background knowledge.

Implicit and Explicit Conflict and Diversity Learning Experiences

In many ways, processes of schooling are designed for social control: students are immersed in a system that encourages the reproduction of particular knowledges and norms through a socialization process known as the hidden curriculum (Apple, 1979/1990; Jackson, 1968).

Building Classroom Climate: What Norms and Pedagogies Support and Impede Dialogue?

How teachers deal with conflict and diversity in multicultural classrooms can influence how students interpret and respond to conflicts and issues of diversity in their lives as citizens, as well as in the classroom. In theory, teachers in public, urban, and diverse classrooms are encouraged by policy documents and guidelines to engage in discussions about controversial issues in the classroom.

Conflict and Diversity in Democratic Classrooms

Conflict can provide opportunities to learn for everyone, even young students. Conflict dialogue processes have been described in various contexts; in elementary classrooms, teachers may use conflict dialogue processes to facilitate open and inclusive social and academic engagement and democratic opportunities to learn.

Towards an Integrative Approach to Peacebuilding Education

All over the world, ease of people’s movement has normalized transnationalism. Today, it is common for most children in metropolitan communities to carry transnational identities. These children must constantly negotiate the pushes and pulls of their identities. Having attachment to two or more countries is not necessarily conflictual; however, when attachments to multiple countries do come in conflict with each other, transnational identities can easily become mired or delegitimized.

Why Peacebuilding Education

Adults and children alike, our positions and perspectives are inherently attached to our identities. Children quickly size up their playmates, often through nonverbal communication. On the playground, they determine unabashedly who to include and who to exclude. Similarly, in the classroom, teachers of implemented curriculum may present and affiliate with hegemonic narratives by falsifying and ignoring people and histories.