Research Sources

Peacebuilding Dialogue Pedagogies in Canadian Classrooms (PDF)

Bickmore, Kathy (2014). Constructively critical and inclusive dialogue about conflictual issues is one necessary ingredient of both democratic citizenship and peacebuilding learning. In North American classrooms populated by heterogeneous and non-affluent students, pedagogies involving discussion of conflicts are rarely fully implemented, sustained, or inclusive of all students’ voices. However, this paper reports the results of a study describing contrasting ways in which 11 teachers actually did dialogic pedagogies on difficult issues in Canadian public school classrooms.  

Citizenship Education in Canada: ‘Democratic’ Engagement with Differences, Conflicts, and Equity Issues (PDF)

Bickmore, Kathy (2014). Active, engaged citizenship, attentive to multicultural diversity, is a prominent goal in recent Canadian citizenship education policy and programming—yet in practice, Canadian students (especially those from less privileged backgrounds) have few opportunities to practice democratically-relevant citizenship learning in school.

Policies and programming for safer schools: Are ‘anti-bullying’ approaches impeding education for peacebuilding (PDF)

Bickmore, Kathy (2011). Prevailing anti-violence practices in public schools, especially in the context of recently increased emphasis on bullying, often allocate more resources to surveillance and control than to facilitation of healthy relationships or conflict/ peace learning. This policy emphasis increases the risks of marginalization and reduces opportunities for diverse students to develop autonomy and mutual responsibility. This qualitative study examines educators’ contrasting interpretations of various school safety and conflict management initiatives in practice, in peaceful and less peaceful schools serving stressed urban populations, and points out spaces for potential policy shifts and clarifications that could enhance sustainable peacebuilding in schools.

Student conflict resolution, power ‘sharing’ in schools, and citizenship education (PDF)

Bickmore, Kathy (2001). This study examines the notions of citizenship embodied in the contrasting ways one peer mediation model was implemented in six different elementary schools in the same urban school district. This program was designed to foster leadership among diverse young people—the power to initiate and carry out peer conflict management activities. In practice, some schools did not share power with any of their student mediators, and other schools shared power only with the kinds of children already seen as "good" students.

Peer Mediation Training and Program Implementation in Elementary Schools: Research Results (PDF)

Bickmore, Kathy (2002). This research examines the implementation and effects of a peer mediation program in twenty-eight urban elementary schools.  Trainers were youths from the same community. Qualitative and quantitative evidence indicate that this program significantly improved the average eight to eleven year-old student’s understanding of and inclination to use nonviolent conflict resolution and his or her capacity to achieve in school.