A Focus on School Change

DeJong (1994) describes RCCP's focus on school change:

"RCCP is unique in its focus on creating school change, a mission consistent with the philosophy of Educators for Social Responsibility--Metro, which states that conflict resolution 'is best taught in the context of a caring community characterized by cooperation, effective communication, emotional strength, appreciation of differences, recognition of common purposes, and shared decision making.' For this reason, RCCP's leadership argues that their program requires a buy-in at the highest levels within the school system.

By creating a 'peaceable school,' a safe environment where students are encouraged to experiment with peaceful ways of resolving conflict, RCCP teachers strive to give their students a new image of what their world can be. For this to happen, however, the teachers themselves must change. They must learn and then apply a new set of skills for heading off and resolving conflict. Even more difficult, they must adopt a new style of classroom management, one that fundamentally involves a sharing of power with students so that they can learn how to deal with their own disputes." (p. 3-4)

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