IMPLICATIONS FOR TRAINING

There are, for training, several implications of the material presented in the pre­ceding parts of this chapter. They center on the social context of learning, the social context of applying one’s learning, the substantive content of the train­ing, and the reflective practitioner.

The Social Context of Learning

The theory described in this chapter suggests that the social context of learning be one in which cooperation, constructive conflict resolution, and creative con­troversy are strongly emphasized. The teaching method employed should take the form of cooperative learning, and the conflictual interactions within the classroom or workshop between teacher and students and among students should model those of creative controversy and constructive conflict resolution. The social context of learning should walk the talk, and in so doing offer stu­dents the experiences that support a cooperative orientation, exemplify the val­ues and social norms of cooperation, and model the skills involved in constructive management of conflict.

The Social Context of Application

It can be anticipated that many social contexts are unfavorable to a cooperative orientation and the use of one’s skills in constructive conflict resolution. In some social contexts, an individual who has such skills may expect to be belittled by friends or associates as being weak, unassertive, or afraid. In other contexts, she may anticipate accusations of being “disloyal,” a “traitor,” or an “enemy lover” if she tries to develop a cooperative problem-solving relationship with the other side. In still other contexts, the possibility of developing a construc­tive conflict resolution process seems so slim that one does not even try to do so. In other words, if the social context leads you to expect to be unsuccessful or devalued in employing your skills, you are not apt to use them; you will do so if it leads you to expect approval and success.

The foregoing suggests that, in unfavorable social contexts, as a skilled con­flict resolver you often need social support as well as two additional types of skill. One relates to the ability to place yourself outside or above your social context so that you can observe the influences emanating from it and then consciously decide whether to resist them personally or not. The other type involves the skills of a successful change agent, someone who is able to help an institution or group change its culture so that it facilitates rather than hin­ders constructive conflict resolution. I mention these additional skills because it is important to recognize that institutional and cultural changes are often necessary for an individual to feel free to express his or her constructive potential.

The common need for social support after training has occurred has impli­cations for who are selected for training and also for post-training contacts. There are several ways to foster a social context that is supportive: train all of the participants in it, train the influential people, or train a cohort of people of sufficient size to provide effective mutual support in the face of resistance. Post­training contacts with the training institution and its trainers may also yield the social support necessary to buttress the individual in a hostile environment.

The Substantive Content of Training

In prior parts of this chapter, I have outlined what I consider to be the attitudes, knowledge, and skills that amount to a framework for education in construc­tive conflict resolution. A skillful trainer fleshes out such a framework with sub­stantive content that is sufficiently vital and intellectually compelling to engage the interest and motivation of the student, is relevant to his or her most com­mon and most difficult conflicts, and is sufficiently diverse in content and social context to facilitate generalizing and applying the training in a variety of situa­tions.

The Reflective Practitioner

One of the important goals of education in this area is to help the student, as well as the trainer, become a reflective practitioner of constructive conflict res­olution. I refer to two kinds of reflection: on managing the conflicts that you are experiencing and on the framework of conflict resolution that you are employ­ing. Self-reflection about how you are handling conflicts is necessary to contin­uing improvement and also to prevent old habits, your hot spots, social pressure, and the like from making you regress to less constructive modes of conflict resolution.

Conflict resolution as a field of study is relatively young; it is going through a period of rapid intellectual development. It is experiencing an upsurge in research, theoretical development, and practical experience that, we hope, result in improvement of the frameworks that are used for training in conflict resolu­tion. The reflective practitioner, by reflecting on his or her practice, can learn from as well as contribute to this growing body of knowledge and reflected-on experience.