Restorative Justice and Community Dispute Resolution

NCR 525 — Mediation (3 Units)

Theory and skills including requirements for certification under the California Dispute Resolution Programs Act, especially agreement procedures, case development, consensus building, issue framing and prioritizing, orientations toward conflict, and record keeping.

Goal: To provide students with the opportunity to learn the stages, steps and skills involved in the practice of mediation as a conflict resolution process, including certification requirements.

Learning Objectives

Students will learn:

1. basic stages, steps and skills of mediation, with focus on facilitative process;
2. practical techniques for identifying and convening parties, creating and maintaining a productive environment, interest identification, consensus building, issue framing, agenda setting, and option generation and evaluation;
3. when mediation is and is not appropriate, and the ethical issues involved in such assessments.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, the successful student will demonstrate the following and evaluate ability to:

1. identify and convene parties;
2. understand when mediation is and is not appropriate, and the ethical issues involved in such assessments;
3. prepare and deliver a simple opening statement introducing mediation’s ethical parameters to parties;
4. create a productive climate for conflict resolution through:
   • negotiating and asserting process ground rules,
   • establishing and maintaining rapport,
   • active and empathetic listening,
   • reframing,
   • interest and commonality identification,
   • collaborative framing of issues,
   • agenda setting;
   • facilitating option generation;
   • guiding option evaluation;
   • observing and evaluating process dynamics and intervention (reflective practice);
5. meet certification requirements;
6. compare and contrast different styles of mediation, including facilitative problem-solving, transformative and narrative approaches.

NCR 540 — Seminar: Community Conflict (3 Units)

The impact of system dynamics on conflict management in communities from neighborhoods to nations. Implications of system dynamics for specifying goals and planning interventions to achieve them, from preemptive to corrective. Implications for training and organization.

Goal: To provide the student with a broad overview of the theories of system dynamics on conflict and of the applicable nature of scientific theory as applied to the area of community conflict.

Learning Objectives

Students learn (1) the major theories (including their authors) on which negotiation, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding are based; and (2) the falsification, generalization, parsimony and usability of such theories in the area of community conflict.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, the successful student will demonstrate ability to:

(1) Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the key concepts, principles, theories, authors, and approaches in the negotiation, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding field utilized in the area of community conflict;

(2) Apply major theories on which negotiation, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding approaches are based to the area of community conflict;

(3) Identify authors of major theories covered in the course; and

(4) Present a paper (orally and in writing) that considers the application of such approaches to a selected area of community conflict.

Students will demonstrate the degree to which they have met these outcomes through their performance in effectively applying them throughout the course to simulated problem scenarios involving community conflict, and by writing and presenting the paper.

NCR 541 — Restorative Justice and Peacebuilding (3 Units)

Addresses respective needs of crime victims and offenders ignored by criminal justice system and international community. Retribution abandoned in favor of restorative model based on needs of victims, offenders and community, achieved through application of conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes.

Goal: To make the student aware of the role of restorative justice, as opposed to the prevailing retributive model of the criminal justice system, in the pursuit of “justice that heals” rather than punishes.

Learning Objectives

(1) Student acquisition of knowledge and understanding of the relationship of restorative justice to the criminal justice system; (2) student understanding of how restorative justice works; (3) student consideration of the future concerning the problems and aspirations of the restorative justice movement.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, the successful student will be able to:

(1) Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how restorative justice works, and the relationship of restorative justice to the criminal justice system; and

(2) Anticipate the future concerning the problems and aspirations of the restorative justice movement.

Students will show the degree to which they have met these outcomes through their performance in effectively applying them to simulated problem scenarios involving restorative justice issues.