This research study reviewed several disciplinary fields and their conceptualizations of
conflict. The primary guiding question was, what is the best conflict education that is
required for youth and adults to live in the world of a "culture of violence" in the list
century? The general purpose of the study was to provide a critique that would initiate an
expanded conflict imaginary, as educators and lifelong learners face a world of growing
complex social and cultural conflicts.
The "case" under specific critical analysis was identified as conflict management
education (CME). CME provided the primary subject (text) for a critical discourse analysis of
its conceptualizations of conflict. The main purpose of the study was to determine the
hegemony of discourse in the text of a "representative" sample of 22 contemporary CME
handbooks and manuals for youth and adults.
CME was found to be a new social movement with a powerful "social technology" to
change attitudes and behaviors, in order to diminish or eliminate violence. This study found
there are virtually no systematic critiques of CME and no significant critiques that focus on
the conceptualization of conflict itself. The discourse of CME's conceptualizations of conflict
tended toward an ideological bias of consensus, unity, cooperation, 'peace and harmony;' and
located within a politically conservative, pragmatist, social psychological discourse. The
entire domain of conflict knowledge from critical pedagogies and the sociological conflict
theory tradition was largely ignored in CME text. This has significant political and
sociocultural implications in the biased shaping of conflict knowledge and the concomitant
power relations of teaching, learning, and the constructing of 'democracy' itself. Without a
critique of its own discourses, CME has limited means, as a discipline of knowledge, to
establish how it may be perpetuating the very violence it is attempting to eliminate. 'Conflict'
pedagogy is offered as an alternative to constructing a critical conflict education as
counterhegemonic to CME. This report closes with a discussion of reflections on the study
and recommendations for further research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10230 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Fisher, R. Michael |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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