Certificate in School Conflict Resolution and Peacemaking - Courses

This certificate consists of 15 semester units of coursework. Certificates in the PACS program may be completed independently or may constitute a portion of the master's degree program.

CRI 704: Conflict Management and Peacemaking in Schools (3 units)

• This course will familiarize students with the structure, dynamics, role and challenge of conflict in schools. Special emphasis will be given to developing strategies and structures to promote cooperative and constructive resolution of conflict.

LLC 705: Language Acquisition and Cross Cultural Communication (3 units)

• This course examines the development of oracy and literacy of first and second language learners, as well as the effects of social and cultural influences on language acquisition.

PACS 704: Conflict Management and Peacemaking in Schools (3 units)

PACS 705: Language Acquisition and Cross Cultural Communication (3 units)

PACS 708: Conflict Analysis (3 units)

• This course is foundational focusing on the basic concepts and dynamics present in conflict. Topics include strategies, cycles and the history, theory and practice of approaches to conflict.

PACS 716: Group Dynamics and Processes (3 units)

• This course examines such themes as group cohesiveness, goals, norms, pressures, structures, power, leadership and problem-solving processes. Includes analysis and reflections on actual cases.

PACS 730: Historical Peacemakers (3 units)

• This course is a study of key thinkers and practitioners in nonviolence and peacemaking during the 19th and 20th centuries. Representative figures studied include Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Tolstoy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Elie Wiesel, et al.

PACS 736: Institute in School Peer Mediation Program Development (2-3 units)

• This course provides basic conflict management and mediation instruction, skill development strategies and practice, student training program plan and materials, and implementation and/or ongoing program strategies. It is designed for teachers and administrators.

PACS 738: Institute in Discipline that Restores Program Development (2 units)

• This course is an introduction to principles of "Discipline That Restores" and strategies and materials to implement a school-wide discipline that restores program. It includes teacher-training strategies and materials, school handbook information, notes for parents, etc.

PACS 748: Discipline that Restores (3 units)

• Participants of this course examine punitive and restorative paradigms for discipline in classrooms, schools and families. Participants identify and analyze the thought and behavior changes required as a discipline system changes its paradigm. Special attention is given to working with difficult situations. Changes in roles and expectations of students, parents, teachers and administrators are clarified. A range of implementation strategies are studied.

PACS 754: Curriculum in Conflict Peacemaking (3 units)

• This course includes an examination/evaluation of conflict management and peacemaking approaches used throughout the curriculum in areas such as history, social studies, literature, and Christian and religious education. It also includes an examination/evaluation of current curriculums relating to conflict management, peacemaking and justice issues.

PACS 756: Introductory Practicum in Mediation (1 unit)

• This practicum includes intensive training and a supervised practical experience in mediating actual conflicts. The practical component may be arranged through the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP), other approved mediation program or the student may arrange to mediate a conflict situation approved by the instructor.

PACS 758: Advanced Mediation (3 units)

• This course includes a careful analysis of the role of a mediator, the options regarding a mediation process and each phase of mediation process in actual cases with a range of complexity and intensity. Theoretical perspectives and models are compared and contrasted with actual case histories to understand the opportunities, options, ethics and limitations of mediation in a variety of settings: serious victim/offender cases, public policy, racial an other discrimination, business and construction cases, various group settings, etc.

PPS 708: Counseling for Diversity (3 units)

• This course will involve the study of ethnicity from a global perspective utilizing a psychocultural approach. The following dimensions will be addressed in counseling multicultural children and parents: (1) social structure levels, (2) patterns of social interaction, (3) subjective experiences of identity and (4) patterns of behavior and expressive styles.

PPS 712: Laws and Ethics (3 units)

• This course studies current and proposed legislation in parent-child relationships. The course encompasses attendance and discipline procedures, pupil records, special programs, employment of minors, liability, the juvenile court system, due process and miscellaneous laws and ethics.

PPS 714: Practicum in Group Process (3 units)

• This course exposes students to frameworks of group process and content, providing students with group experience from the perspective of both facilitator and group member. The course increases students' self awareness and knowledge of both clinical and facilitated support group activities that embrace pupil diversity, developmental level and unique resiliency capacity, along with understanding the impact of support groups in promoting positive school climate and the reduction of at-risk behavior.