Apart from providing information as to why students drop out of school, this research also provides us with some valuable insights on what it takes to create a sense of belonging in classrooms, schools, and workplaces. Drawing on the fields of conflict resolution and negotiation, Norman Kunc and Emma Van der Klift help participants expand their repertoire of responses to obstruction and opposition so that they can side-step many of the power struggles which seem endemic in schools and workplaces. Participants learn ways of negotiating contentious issues so that they are better able maintain respectful relationships without compromising their own views. If You Want Kids to Learn, Teach em how to Fail. The only thing that distinguishes failure from experimentation is perception.
Failure can be our greatest resource.
Yet, too often we see our mistakes as a reflection of personal incompetence rather than as a potentially enjoyable process of experimentation. Drawing on his experience as a disabled person, Norman Kunc describes how life with a disability prompted him to see failure as an invitation to creativity. Norman shows us how to identify the fear of failure messages we send ourselves and learn how to experience the true joy of failure. The move towards inclusive education is often accompanied by significant opposition and conflict. Yet if we can seize this opportunity and learn to deal with conflict constructively, then inclusion may benefit schools in unexpected ways.