Cultural Connections: An Alternative to Conflict Resolution

In today's increasingly polyglot classrooms, interpersonal and inter-group conflicts often arise out of mutual misunderstandings between different collections of students, some based on language or status differences but many more generated by emotionally charged misconceptions. As such, peer mediation and peaceful solutions to student arguments and fights are needed. To assess whether cultural connection represents a viable alternative to conflict resolution in helping ameliorate strained interactions between a group of African and African American students, the author and her colleagues designed a study of conflicted interactions that can illustrate some of these alternative pathways. This study was composed of a self-selected group of 16 African and 15 African American students, almost equally split between male and female. What she and her colleagues found were several interconnected methods for engaging students in recognizing that the differences that they perceive are largely based on myths, misperceptions, or stereotypes. The author started with a narrative about a shared historical track, which for many African Americans means learning about the real history of slavery and its impact on the Africans and the Americans who are the product of its legacy. (Contains 1 note and 4 resources.)