This paper discusses a case study that serves as an example of a conflict mediation program in a small high school in Missouri. The program began with the following goals: 1) to reduce the number of conflicts in the school; 2) to empower students with the ability to solve their own conflicts; 3) to teach conflict resolution skills to students; and…

When a popular high school principal was reassigned under difficult circumstances, the school's culture was torn apart. A narrative of how this happened and how the principal's successor was able to heal the rift is provided in this report. The paper provides details of the actions that led up to the board reassigning the principal and the outcry…

Teachers at an urban high school in New Brunswick (Canada) were reluctant to begin an intervention program directed at student anger and violence until they had gained input from the students themselves. A survey was conducted of the students' experience with violence and their opinions about how to address the problem. Participants were 769 (395…

This is a study on the impact of culture on the leadership of Mexican principals facing political and socioeconomic pressures. The research is a continuation of an international study engaging researchers from 8 countries: Thailand, China, UK, Norway, Singapore, Norway, Brazil, U.S., and Mexico. The twelve high school principals who participated…

This study examines the beliefs of Norwegian 16 year-olds about conflict resolution strategies. During 1990-91 over 40 high school students were interviewed in over 50 upper secondary schools throughout Norway. The interviews were conducted in English with groups of two or three students. The students interviewed had stronger English language…

The diversity of values about sexuality among administrators, teachers, parents, and children creates serious challenge for public schools. This case study offers an insider's view of what happened in a community when conservative parent groups challenged a senior high health curriculum. In the "Laketown Public Schools," conflict erupted…

A study examined the communication and conflict strategizing of high school youth to determine the differences between biological sex groups and grade level groups. Data were collected from 217 senior high school students (79 males and 138 females; 162 10th-graders and 55 11th- and 12th-graders), all of whom were enrolled in a required course in…

The role of religious and secular rituals in the mediation of conflicting goals and the socialization of students into harmonious unity is analyzed in the context of a Catholic high school in the Midwest. Data were gathered by a participant-observer who attended classes and extracurricular activities, conducted formal interviews, and informally…

This study assessed the relationships between human values and the psychological construct of world-mindedness. Fifty-one college students and 58 high school students in a town in the Pacific Northwest completed the Values Questionnaire (Schwartz, 1992, 94) and the Cross-cultural World-mindedness Questionnaire (Der-Karabetian, 1992). A stepwise…

This study examined amount and type of mother-adolescent conflict and joint decision making in predicting a syndrome of adolescent problem behavior. Subjects, 73 adolescents ages 14 to 18 and their mothers, completed measures of conflict and decision making related to everyday household routines, adolescent deviant behavior, and adolescent…

A study examined student perceptions of the school environment in a small, rural high school in southeastern North Carolina. Surveys returned by 417 students in grades 9-12 suggested that the presence of gangs and unsafe or hidden areas were not major problems. The fact that 46 percent indicated that vandalism was a problem suggests that vandalism…

An action research project integrated violence intervention and prevention into a child development curriculum through a parenting unit fostering confirmatory methods of struggle management between high school and preschool students. Subjects were 45 second- and third-year child development students, 75 first-year child development students, and…

A study was done to examine the lived experience of conflict among students in a transitional class for returning long-term absentees in Walker Hill High School (a pseudonym), an inner city New York City high school. The project was a substudy of the New York City Dropout Prevention Evaluation Project. The theoretical framework of the study began…

Middle Tennessee State University recently developed a satellite-linked, interactive distance learning system with six rural K-12 schools. Faculty were then invited to make a single presentation over this system. The social work department, recognizing both the opportunities and the limitations presented by this new system, elected to be one of…

This study examined whether recent graduates of the Northfield Public Schools (Minnesota) had acquired the skills necessary to make successful transitions to adulthood and postsecondary education. Survey responses (n=146) were obtained from two recently graduated classes 3 years after graduation and from graduates of the Alternative Learning…