This paper examines a burgeoning network of organizations that is inventing new forms of community renewal and citizenship education. Their names vary--some call themselves public policy institutes, others centers for civic life--yet they share a common methodology, one aimed at tackling tough public issues, strengthening communities, and…

Offering lifelong and developmental learning to over 13 million students at nearly 1,200 schools, community colleges in the United States attract a student body with remarkable economic, ethnic, and cultural diversity. They provide students with skills and foundational knowledge upon which successful professional careers and rewarding personal…

Although intellectual conflict may be an important instructional tool (because of its potential constructive outcomes), conflict is rarely structured in instructional situations (because of its potential destructive outcomes). Many educators may be apprehensive about instigating intellectual conflict among students because of the lack of…

Recent research indicates that destructive conflict occurs in a significant number of international graduate student and faculty supervisor relationships. Unfortunately, a paucity of research exists to inform the effective management or prevention of this problem. To address this lacunae, international graduate students (n = 55) and faculty…

In this dissertation, based on classical grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967, 1971; Glaser, 1978, 1992, 1993, 1994a, 1994b, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004), second generation Hispanic presidents and chancellors in higher education were studied to discover how they continually try to resolve second culture-coping challenges, the…

Empirical studies of early childhood educators' experiences with learning and implementing positive guidance skills are absent from the extant literature. This study explored this topic with 63 junior and senior level university students who were involved in concurrent instructional lecture and practicum experiences. Participants defined…

The poliheuristic (PH) theory of decision making has made important contributions to our understanding of political decision making but remains silent about certain key aspects of the decision process. Specifically, PH theory contends that leaders screen out politically unacceptable options, but it provides no guidance on (1) the crucial threshold…

This paper presents the design and assesses the results of an international collaborative course of American and Canadian undergraduates on the topic of postconflict peacebuilding. Using online discussions, a web-based role-play simulation, and videoconferencing this collaborative course sought to enhance student engagement with the material by…

There is often a particular void in the education of deaf and hard-of-hearing students who intend to become competent working laboratory technicians. Inasmuch as certain basic professional skills ("soft skills," in this case) are not generally taught in traditional science courses, a new curriculum has been developed in order to enforce…

This article discusses a qualitative research project designed to investigate processes and outcomes of learning in a first-year undergraduate course--"Introduction to conflict resolution: theory and skills" (ICR)--taught in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford. The research project was set up to help us understand how…

Eight female and 4 male supervisors identified by professional peers as highly competent were interviewed about experiences of conflict in supervision and their dependable strategies for managing it. Highly competent supervisors were open to conflict and interpersonal processing, willing to acknowledge shortcomings, developmentally oriented, and…

Conflict in the university setting is an inherent component of academic life. Leaders spend more than 40% of their time managing conflict. Department heads are in a unique position--they encounter conflict from individuals they manage and from others to whom they report such as a senior administrator in the position of dean. There are very few…

This experiment examined the effects of epistemic vs. relational conflicts on the relationship with a partner. Students participated to a fictitious computer-mediated interaction about a text with a bogus partner who introduced either an epistemic conflict (a conflict that referred to the content of the text), or a relational conflict (a conflict…

The presence of a college or university in a community can greatly enrich the lives of long-term residents, intellectually, culturally, and financially. But students who live, work, and play in nearby neighborhoods can sometimes create enormous problems, putting a strain on campus and community relations and compromising the health and safety of…

Most leadership programs emphasize knowledge over skills, being skillful over how to be skillful, knowledge about skills over skill application, and ad hoc and hard-to-assess field activities over focused and observable skill practice. "Knowledge and skill application laboratories" provide opportunities to experiment with--and receive…