From: "Rodney Coates" To: "revs@csf.colorado.edu" , "PSN-CAFE" Date: Tue, 27 Aug 96 12:45:27 +0 Reply-To: "Rodney Coates" Subject: Interactive Internet Course on Race and Ethnic Conflict Resolution We have reached the point of decision. Several have indicated that this course is needed. We are currently asking those who are serious about offering this course in the spring of this academic institution to let us know. The readings are intended to be suggestive, where specific readings will be dictated by availability at host institutions, interests in specific regional conflicts, and our collaborative effort. Here is the gneral syllubus and information regarding this course. I look forward to hearing from you. I would like to thank all the many who took part in developing this course from England, Germany, Switzerland, and throughout the United States. The course looks to be an exciting one. Now the task before us is to begin the process of coordinating. For those who have been contemplating offering this course at your institution there is more than enough time..at least 10 months or so to get on board. Look for future updates to come as they develop. Again, thanks all who participated in this developmental stage, and for those who will come on board..there is plenty of room at the table. Below you will find the course as it currently exist, I expect that the syllabus will be further modified for local partner issues (i.e., if a particular set of readings will be more appropriate for your location please advise and we will make adjustments). Gotta go, but stay in touch as I will also.... BWS 380.H - Race and Ethnic Relations: Conflict Resolution and the Internet Course Objectives: Xenophobia has reemerged throughout Europe, while Racism and ethnic hostilities are on the rise in America. Scapegoats and groups are being singled out for hostile reactions, discrimination, and hate. Uncertainty, fear, economic recessions, political instabilities are the most identifiable causes of these problems. In the light of the latest wave of xenophobia and racism it is increasingly essential that students become involved in race relations and conflict resolution 1. To enhance student awareness of the impact of perceived realities upon intergroup relations, misunderstandings, and hostilities. 2. To widen the student's frame of reference in studying race relations and conflict resolution through interaction with students in other institutions, both in the United States and abroad. 3. To develop student awareness of the many forums and perspectives available on the Internet from either enhance or undermine race relations. 4. To stimulate individual research into identifying, analyzing, and cross-culturally comparing race relations problems and proposing possible action plans for conflict resolution. Teaching Strategies: 1. Lecture 2. Discussion 3. Role Playing 4. ListServ readings and discussions 5. Internet discussions with peers taking similar course 6. Assigned readings Evaluation Methods: 1. At designated intervals (usually every two weeks), students submit a two-page paper that summarizes discussions they have had with ListServ participants. 2. Class participation in seminar discussions. 3. Final paper on a pre-approved topic on a race relations topic and the proposed conflict resolution. Class Structure to Meet Learning Objectives: 1. Each student "hooks up" with peers in courses elsewhere to form electronic discussion groups for weekly "chats" on the assigned topic. 2. Within the seminar class, students participate in open discussion based the readings and electronic input. 3. Instructor serves as a facilitator in generating discussions both in class and on the Internet, guiding students into a greater understanding of the subject while also developing further their critical thinking skills in the issues, hidden agendas, and social constructions of reality that impact upon both race relations and the ongoing electronic discussions. The nature of the Class: (I) Syllabi and bibliographic resources could be shared via E-mail. (II) Electronic "bulletin boards" would announce topics or themes for dialogue or debate. (III) Faculty and student discussion groups could "talk" back and forth - respond to questions, "solve" problems. (IV) Lectures would be sent via E-mail and made available for reading at any time. (Electronic TEAM-TEACHING) Some products of this process: "Conflict Resolution" course that results in or produces: (a) an innovative mode of teaching and learning, (b) instructional networking among social scientists, (3) an electronically generated set of resources (e.g., films, bibliographies), (4) a teaching product that could be submitted to the ASA Teaching Resources Division, and/or (5) "solutions" to troubling problems of the time. Focused in class discussions featuring role playing. This exercise carried out in a series of critical negotiations and debates could lead students into deeper discussions of how perceived history feeds into racial/ethnic hatreds which combine with current security concerns. How these factors place obstacles while negotiating lasting solutions to ethnic violence. By devoting time in class over an extended period to role playing, students may gain some understanding of how deeply felt some hatreds are and what measures would be needed to move beyond them. Rational: There are literally thousands of listservs devoted to providing a forum for specific ethnic and/or racial groups. One can find every variant of perspective, from racist to racialist, antagonists to protagonists, those whose aim is racial conciliation to perpetuating racial and ethnic discord. Students, from multiple universities will be encouraged to tap into these listservs. This will provide what might be called some superficial and typically a more detailed first hand introduction to various sources of conflict. After an initial period introduction, surfing of the net and scanning published material, students will be encouraged to select a particular regional conflict and pair up with colleagues at other institutions. Teams will be constructed which will be devoted to a particular side of the conflict ( for example: If Ireland were taken as a regional location, one set of students will take the side of Protestants while another will take the Catholics. In America, one set could represent Native Americans living on reservations while another federal or local townspeople. In Canada it might be between French and English. In the middle east one set obviously could take Palestinian while others will take the position of Jewish settlers. ). Through research and dialogue the student teams would explore the historical, psychological, economic, political, sociological and contemporary sources of conflict from the unique vantage point of the particular group. By looking at the multiple facets of the problem through interdesciplinarian lenses slanted from the unique perspective of the particular groups greater clarity will be provided regarding the exact nature of various conflicts. Through continuous and regular dialogue with fellow students over the Internet a more dynamic intellectual process will follow. Syllabus: BWS: 495 "Race/Ethnic Relations: Conflict Resolution and the Internet - Process and Solutions" - A Seniors Honors Course Pedagogical Rational All too often racial/ethnic groups (in America and throughout the world) and issues relating to their existence are objectified. Such objectification reduces racial/ethnic group existence to that of problems that are then researched, examined, and discussed but rarely solved. The consequences of this approach are that racial/ethnic groups and problems become inseparable in the minds of the student and lay public. Thus rather then the problems faced by racial/ethnic groups, the subject of inquiry becomes racial/ethnic group problems, the problem of racial/ethnic groups, etc. Historically, to the extent that solutions are rendered, they are done so with the aim of rehabilitating racial/ethnic groups. While the problem(s) remain(s) unresolved. Alternatively, a problem focused research concentrates on symptomatic discussions rarely identifying underlying causes, symbiotic relationships (between problems), and structural processes that inhibit identification of specific solutions and/or successful policy formulation. What this means is that we periodically rediscover the same problem set(s), offer typically the same cosmetic solutions which results in frustration and apathy when our efforts prove ineffectual. It is envisioned that this capstone course would be process and solutions oriented. The course would have three primary foci: (1) Problem identification (i.e., analysis of the historical, social, political and ethical context by which a problem set has emerged), (2) process identification (i.e., cross-cultural analysis of programs and policies implemented to resolve similar types of problem sets), and (3) solution generation (i.e., the synthesis of 1 and 2 above into an action plan aimed at resolving, solving, eliminating the problem set). This capstone course is designed to be labor intensive (both for students and faculty). A seminar format, with its implicit informal/intimate character, would best accommodate this course. Class size would therefore be limited to no more then 20 upperclass students. While this capstone would not specifically require that students either complete a BWS thematic sequence or be BWS majors, it does assume as prerequisites one or more of the following: Research and Data Analysis, Policy Design, Understanding the history, politics, theories, sociology of the racial/ethnic groups. Obviously, the more of these prerequisites the student has mastered the greater potential benefits of such an educational experience. Optimally (and with the understanding that no one student will have mastered these areas), the student makeup of the class would maximize each of these areas thereby increasing the group learning experience for all. `Students will accomplish the following and consequently learn the following because of this course. 1) Create and maintain a listsrv linking students on the Internet concerned with Conflict Resolution 2) Understand the nature of different types of ethnic/racial conflict to include history, theory, and practice 3) Understand the nature and complexity of conflict resolution 4) acquire knowledge and formulate ideas regarding conflict resolution overall and particularly as it applies to a specific conflict situation. Optimally, seminar students will interact with their peers at other universities on a ListServ devoted to conflict resolution. At the very least, students will identify news groups and other listsrvs devoted to ethnicity, race, and/or conflict resolution. This will provide a practical medium to discuss and expand students understanding and knowledge of various types of racial/ethnic conflict and its resolution. Readings for this course will come from: Week 1 and 2: Read and discuss: Wilkenson, Doris, "Transforming the Social Order: The Role of the University in Social Change." Sociological Forum 9 (1994): 325-341. Martin Luther King's Where do we go from here: Community or Chaos activity: set up listsrv: Race/ethnic conflict resolution identify other news groups and listsrv on INTERNET which deal with various ethnic and racial groups. Select area conflict interested (groups of 2-3 students will select a particular regional conflict they are interested in knowing more about). Begin research and interaction over net (with net partners at other institutions) regarding the history of this conflict, theories and solution sets. Establish contact with these groups and listsrv's. Establish partnerships with other student colleagues at other participating universities. Week 3 and 4 read and discuss: Volpe, Maria R. "An Urban University-Based Conflict Resolution Program" 1994 Education and Urban Society, 1994, 27, 1, Nov, 22-34. Harris, Albert W."Negotiation Context: An Introductory Essay " 1994 Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 1994, 20, 2, I-xxv. activity: take these issues apply to regional conflict of choice. Interact with INTERNET colleagues over listsrv, arrive at a consensus re: how it applies. Week 5 and 6: read and discuss: Zoubir, Yahia H., "Protracted Conflict and Failure to Achieve Prenegotiation in the Western Sahara Conflict," 1994, Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 1994, 20, 2, 1-44. Norman, Alex J., "Black-Korean Relations: From Desperation to Dialogue, or from Shouting and Shooting to Sitting and Talking" 1994, Journal of Multicultural Social Work, 1994, 3, 2, 87-99. Prepare an initial response paper re: policy implications of regional conflict, infuse readings, listsrv discussions into group paper. Submit paper to listsrv for debate and discussion. Week 7 and 8: Discuss and refine group paper based upon INTERNET responses. Resubmit paper to listsrv for review, debate and discussion. Read and discuss: Haj-Yahia, Muhammad M.; Edleson, Jeffrey L. " Predicting the Use of Conflict Resolution Tactics among Engaged Arab-Palestinian Men in Israel" 1994 Journal of Family Violence, 1994, 9, 1, Mar, 47-62. Week 9 and 10 read and discuss: Antonovsky, Aaron , Mburu, F. M.; Waitzkin, Howard; Siegrist, Johannes Complexity, "Conflict, Chaos, Coherence, Coercion and Civility " 1993 Social Science and Medicine, 1993, 37, 8, Oct, 969-981. Engage with listsrv participants re: the relevancy of these observations and determine how this new information and discussions impact upon position/policy paper. Week 11 and 12 read and discuss: "Anti-Semitism and African Americans." Society (September/October, 1994): 45-48. Stone, John "Power, Ethnicity and Conflict Resolution" 1992 Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, 1992, 12(Part A), 89-105. engage with listsrv participants re: the relevancy of these observations and determine how this new information and discussions impact upon position/policy paper. Week 13 and 14 2nd draft of position/policy paper due. Class, INTERNET discussion to follow. Read and discuss Borg, Marian J. "Conflict Management in the Modern World-System"1992 Sociological Forum, 1992, 7, 2, June, 261-282. Week 15: final paper due: Presented on net and in class for discussion, review and revision. End of course rap-up. "Only when lions have Historians will hunters cease being heroes." African Proverb UMOJA, Rodney D. Coates Director of Black World Studies Associate Professor of Sociology Miami University Oxford, Ohio - 45056 PH: 513-5291235 umoja Only when lions have historians will hunters cease being heroes. African Proverb Without struggle there is no progress. Frederick Douglass The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. Steven Biko yours in the struggle Rodney D. Coates Director of Black World Studies Associate Professor of Sociology Miami University Oxford, Ohio 45056 513 529-1235 email: coatesrd@casmail.muohio.edu