More and more, government and community leaders, diplomats and teachers consider conflict resolution education essential for addressing conflict in their spheres of influence. Underlying this belief in the importance of conflict resolution is a commitment to nonviolence, a value that rejects the use of physical and psychological force and aggression as tools to achieve one s goals or as a means of resolving differences. Nonviolence actively opposes actions and attitudes that demean and brutalize others and the earth and supports those values and expressions that foster human solidarity. Conflict resolution is an expression of this value. ESL teachers may find conflict resolution particularly important and challenging because their classes are usually comprised of students from different cultures.
Cultural differences can lead to conflict in the classroom.
For example, students from a culture in which they are relatively passive in the classroom and spend most of their time listening to the teacher may resent students from another culture who are more active and vocal and who monopolize airtime in the class. A teacher may experience conflict with students who, from their perspective, are helping each other as classmates should but who, from the teacher s perspective, are cheating. These types of cultural differences make conflict resolution education especially important in the ESL classroom. Teachers who plan to help their students become conflict literate need to become aware of their own views about conflict. There are four key ideas in conflict literacy that teachers should understand and should help their students understand.