Everyday Creative Conflict Transformation

List of Failures

2010-08-28T14:26:00.004+08:00

I just finished conducting a seminar for my colleagues in the College of Business Accountancy, where I shared information and my learning on Professional Scholarly Writing in a Global Context; the difference among Plagiarism, Copyright and Fair Use; and the use of the latest APA Style, 6th ed.

What struck me most from the seminar was the audience's feedback on using sensitive language in research, and "describing participants and subjects at the appropriate level of specificity." I gave them the example of how, sadly still, in our University, we use the term "List of Failures" to publish the list of students (well, their id nos. actually) who have incurred failing grades in their subjects at the end of the semester. A more appropriate and specific term for "List of Failures" should be "List of Students who have Failed Grades".

It catalyzed a spirited discussion among us, about our almost unconscious tendency to throw words around as if they meant nothing more than what we intended to use them for the moment. I shared my own thoughts about how, when we really take time to reflect on them, a lot of the words we use are actually violent, in the sense that they contribute to a paradigm of treating people as less than the fullest human beings that they are.

I remember a time many years ago when I was still chairing a new department in our University, which was really a department formed to "catch" all the students who've been floating around, shifting from one program to another, and just aimlessly going through college. The department was euphemistically named, "Interdisciplinary Studies" (IDS), but it had the stigma of having students whom people perceived as "losers", since they got kicked out of their previous programs.

So, when I took over as chair, I was faced with the challenge of how to handle 400-plus IDS students who perceived themselves as losers and failures, with half of them put on academic probationary status for less than satisfactory grade standing. They are usually called "Probees". And when you're an IDS Probee, that's double the stigma.

Just out of curiousity, and to put a more "fun" and positive spin to the status, when I called them for meetings, instead of posting the usual "Attention IDS Probees..." in the bulletin boards, with their names listed there, I turned to using the term "Late Bloomers" to call them, still with their names listed there.

It quickly caught on among the students and they thought it was really cool and fun... and they started seeing themselves that way, as late bloomers-- they may not have bloomed yet, but will.

I should have done a formal research on that, but I was too engrossed in addressing the myriad needs of the students in the department, getting them to believe in themselves again and to get out of the ruts they have temporarily dug themselves into. After 4 years, though, the "Late Bloomer" list interestingly went down from 50% of the student population in the program to only around 15%. Coincidence?

I don't know so.

That's why I don't join (name your disease/angst) support groups. The very act of naming them there and attaching "support group" to it actually perpetuates the mentality and one's perception of one's identity as being stuck there.

Naming something is making it real.

Be careful of the names you use.

Fire and Conflict

2008-01-23T18:33:00.000+08:00

Like fire, conflict attracts our attention, draws us in.

Like fire, conflict can burn and destroy.

Like fire, conflict can also warm and heal.

How do you use fire? How do you deal with conflict?

Think about it.

The Basics

2008-01-23T18:31:00.000+08:00

These are the two main books that helped me not only understand and see alternative, more creative and positive ways of dealing with conflict, but also sustained me as I practiced the principles in my own everyday life. I cannot over-recommend these "bibles" by John Paul Lederach and Marshall Rosenberg:

The Little Book of Conflict

and

Nonviolent Communication

2008-01-23T18:22:00.000+08:00

There's a new Rosenberg edition I found at Amazon, co-authored by Arun Gandhi, which includes a workbook, too:

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life -- Create Your Life, Your Relationships and Your World in Harmony with Your Values

Highly Recommended Online Courses

2008-01-23T18:05:00.001+08:00

You might want to check out these very affordable online courses at Transcend Peace University.

They hire the best, if not the pioneers, in the field of conflict studies in many different areas. Its rector is the world-renowned Johan Galtung, the founder and director of TRANSCEND, an international peace and development network for conflict transformation through peaceful means.

I took my Peace Journalism course with Jake Lynch last March to June, 2007, and I am very satisfied with the content and process of the course.

1. Advanced course on Peaceful Conflict Transformation
2. Building Peace Education
3. Conflict Care and Reconciliation
4. Democratization and Development
5. Dialogue, Negotiation and Mediation
6. Difesa Popolare Nonviolenta
7. Gender, Peace Building and De-militarization
8. Missed Opportunities: Iraq and the Balkans
9. Non-violent Political Institutions
10. Non-violent Tools and Philosophy
11. Peace and Global Compact
12. Peace and Literature
13. Peace Business
14. Peace Journalism
15. Peace Mathematics
16. Peace Zones
17. Peace, Gender and Violence
18. Peace, Macrohistory and the Future
19. Peaceful Conflict Transformation
20. Peaceful Conflict Transformation in Russian
21. The Human Right to Adequate Food
22. Transformacion Pacifica de Conflictos
23. Transformarea paşnică a conflictelor: Metoda TRANSCEND
24. Values for a comprehensive peace: Ethics for the 21st century