Peacemaking Training

On this page, you can find my complete set of resources for training in peacemaking. These include the presentations and activities I administered in trainings for university staff members and in courses for university students. These trainings would be impossible without the knowledge and support of other peacemakers, including Brett Lee Shelton, Cheryl Fairbanks, Robert Yazzie, Christy Chapman, Niyo Moraza-Keeswood and Karen Biestman, to name a few.

Please note that while these lessons and activities are useful, they cannot supplement trainings with professional peacemakers. Thank you!

Peacemaking 101, Session 1:

Introduction to Peacemaking Presentation: The below presentation provides an overview of peacemaking including an explanation the components of a circle and how peacemaking has been used as a tool of decolonization at Stanford.

Practicing Values Circles Guide: This guide, used for Peacemaking 101 Session 1, asks individuals to break into groups and practice leading values circles. These values circles are often used to help strengthen community bonds. Values circles are also a great way for people to begin practicing their facilitation skills and understanding the basic components of a circle.

Peacemaking 101, Session 2 :

Peacemaking in Practice Presentation: While the Introduction to Peacemaking presentation provides a high-level overview of circles, this presentation dives into the detailed responsibilities of a facilitator.

Mock Scenario 1: Participants were given an opportunity to test their peacemaking skills in this first mock scenario. The conflict description and characters can be seen here. Each role was given to one participant in the group, except for the peacemaker to which two people were assigned. While this is not necessary, I wanted as many participants as possible to have an opportunity to try the peacemaker role. After assigning roles, I shared the conflict description with all participants and gave everyone about 5-10 minutes to plan for their characters before beginning the circle. (If possible, do not let participants read other roles outside of their own.)

Note: Don't take yourself too seriously during mock scenarios! Have fun with it, and if you need to pause to discuss something as a group or get advice, go for it! This is all a time for practicing and learning together.

Peacemaking 101, Session 3:

Debrief + Mock Circle Prep Presentation: During the first half hour of Session 3, I debriefed Mock Scenario 1 with participants and led a guided discussion before launching into our second mock scenario.

Mock Scenario 2: Mock Scenario 2 includes some conversations and themes that might be more difficult to manage than those in Scenario 1. More time will be needed to complete this scenario. Just as before, I assigned two individuals to the role of Peacemaker. If possible, assign new individuals to this role.

Peacemaking 201, Session 1:

Preparing for a Circle Presentation: In my own experience, the most important work in peacemaking happens before the circle even begins! Pre-work, such as meeting with participants and creating an agenda, often determines the success of the experience. In this presentation, we did a deeper dive into how to accomplish this pre-work along with a short recap of information from some of the Peacemaking 101 sessions. This presentation also included guest peacemaker Brett Lee Shelton from the Native American Rights Fund. You can also find a recorded copy of the presentation here.

Preparing for a Circle Activity: The following activity is a great way to take the lessons from the presentation and put them into practice. Participants are asked to pair up and, using the conflict description, plan their own peacemaking circle. It can be helpful to have examples of previous peacemaking circle agendas and questions. I've included some of these below, which I developed and used for real circles during my time as Conflict Resolution Fellow.

• Example 1, Peacemaking Guide

• Example 2, Peacemaking Guide

Peacemaking 201, Session 2:

Navigating Challenges in Circles Presentation: In this session, we overviewed examples of the types of breakdowns that are typical in peacemaking and discussed tips on how to navigate these concerns. This presentation also included guest peacemaker Brett Lee Shelton from the Native American Rights Fund. You can also find a recorded copy of the presentation here.

Navigating Challenges in Circles Activity: In this activity, participants are asked to pair off and discuss how they might address a variety of challenging situations during a circle.

Peacemaking 201, Session 3:

Mock Scenario 3

Syllabus: This syllabus offers a variety of texts to learn peacemaking from, including Niyo Moraza-Keeswood's Peacemaking Toolkit, and a model for how to teach students about Peacemaking theory and practice over the course of a quarter.

Note: Some of the presentations above, specifically Introduction to Peacemaking and Peacemaking in Practice, were used to teach students in this course as well.

Project Prompts: Our students were assigned three to four projects during the quarter, depending on how many units they took the course for. You can view the project prompts below.

• Project 1: In this first essay, students were asked to imagine how peacemaking could be used to navigate a concern in the university setting.

• Project 2 : Following informative guest lectures from tribal partners, students were then asked to imagine how peacemaking and other traditional justice practices could be used as part of hybrid models in tribal courts.

• Project 3: Towards the end of the quarter, our students focused on applying peacemaking and other Indigenous healing practices to historical trauma and injustices, most notably the abuse of Indigenous youth in boarding schools run by the church and US and Canadian governments. This paper prompt allowed students to explore the larger, societal implications of Indigenous healing practices.

• Project 4: Those students taking an extra unit were asked to work on an additional final project. In the autumn of 2021, the US Department of the Interior was leading an investigation into the history of boarding schools and their impacts on Indigenous youth. As a way to support future healing initiatives on this front, students were charged to complete one of two projects. The first was a literature search and subsequent works cited list of academic materials on the history of boarding schools. The second was a list of trauma-and culturally-informed interview questions that could be asked to the survivors of these boarding schools . Such interviews could be used to document critical oral histories and support the national reconciliation process.

Course Website: The following website was used to share the course syllabus with our students and introduce them to our teaching partners and guest lecturers.

Final Project: At the end of the course, students were split into groups and asked to work on a final project that tested their peacemaking facilitation skills. Students designed a mock conflict scenario that they believed could be navigated through peacemaking . They then chose a peacemaker from within their group and acted out the conflict scenario in front of the class.

Examples of Final Projects by Students: Below are some of the mock conflict scenarios developed by our students in class.

• Example 1

• Example 2