We have used a role-play exercise to help students understand the role of the whips in British parliamentary politics, a subject with which students often struggle. In itself, this proved a valuable learning and teaching tool, but we found it became even more useful when we incorporated a practitioner into the exercise. This overcame some of the…

The sector is entering a climate of future funding cuts and fee rises, which are likely to prompt a growing number and widening range of disputes. This article describes the launch of a new Improving Dispute Resolution Advisory Service. The particular questions raised in this context by the introduction of student charters and the relationship of…

This article is based on the presentation Anna Lubelska made at the 12th International Conference on Children's Spirituality. Anna is Director of Spiritual England which is a not for profit organisation set up in 2009. Its aim is to promote the importance of spirituality and to help increase access to opportunities for spiritual development. Its…

Most history teachers will, at some point, recognise the tension between teaching an engaging history course while at the same time meeting the requirements of an exam specification. Mark Fowle and Ben Egelnick reflect here on how they approached teaching a formal requirement of an exam specification. Rather than see "controlled…

For years, development officers have cultivated prospective donors by listening to their deepest desires. Now, development officers' work increasingly involves devising a strategy for aligning the donor's desires with the mission, goals, and needs of their institution. It is possible, even amid signs of changing donor agendas and attitudes, but it…

Many institutions have difficulties in resolving complaints and grievances and other types of dispute speedily and economically. Lapses still occur in following procedures; disputes frequently grow more complicated than they were at the start; they drag on; they waste the time of administrators and those involved, even ending sometimes in an…

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to explore ways in which value pluralism in institutional learning-technology strategy can be exposed and managed with the use of learning activities involving stakeholder groups across and between educational institutions. Design/methodology/approach: The case-study of a series of national workshops on…

The disproportionately high rates of school exclusion and lower levels of academic achievement of students from particular minority ethnic groups have been a focus of investigation in educational research across the world for some time. This articles uses a communities of practice framework to examine how restorative practice can draw on family…

In this article, the author first outlines the responsibilities of governors as explained by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), Audit Commission and the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). Governors' work includes not just developing strategy and policy construction, but conflict resolution, too. Brief case studies…

Expectations about how assessment takes place in schools rarely stand still. Summative and periodic assessments continue to have their traditional place in tracking pupil progress. Using assessment data for school accountability is a more recent phenomenon. Now the development of APP (Assessing Pupils' Progress) programmes in schools in England…

Family mediation is described as "helping to find a solution that meets the needs of you, your partner and any children, and that you all feel is fair". There is a growing consensus that, in comparison with court hearings, family mediation improves outcomes for parents and children, in cases of child contact and residence dispute.…

This article documents the important issues of school violence and bullying in the United Kingdom. The authors provide examples of effective interventions for preventing violence and describe some methods, grounded in a restorative and emotional intelligence framework, that have been successfully adopted in U.K. schools. The authors conclude that…

Discussion of the role of children's literature in promoting peaceful resolutions to conflict focuses on a study that examined juvenile fiction about the United States and/or the British Isles during World War II. Attitudes in the stories were categorized, including prowar, conditional support, antiwar, and indifference. (18 references) (LRW)

Adults who work in positions of authority with young people must be prepared for the possibility of conflict, which could lead to aggressive behavior. Incorrect handling of a crisis will produce a conflict cycle, the four stages of which are described. Legal issues surrounding physical intervention (in the United Kingdom) are summarized, and…

As part of the efforts of Sweden's Malmo School of Education's "Preparedness for Peace" project, this document presents a conversation with Paul Smoker. Smoker is director of the Richardson Institute for Conflict and Peace Research, University of Lancaster, England. He has a long history of involvement with peace research and peace…