Kennesaw State University MSCM
Syllabus, Fall Semester 2010
CM 7710: Domestic/The Practice of Conflict Management: Field Experience (2 Credits) or
CM 7715: International/The Practice of Conflict Management: Field Experience (2 Credits)
Dates to be Determined
CM 7720: The Practice of Conflict Management: Field Study and Field Work Report (5 Credits)
Class Meetings: Nov 12-13
CM 7705: Advanced Applied Skills Training (2 Credits)
Class Meetings: Aug 13-15, 27-28
Class hours will be Fridays 3:00pm-8:00pm, Saturdays 8:30am-3:30pm.
Dr. Timothy Hedeen
Office: SO 5060
Office Phone: 770-423-6879
Email: tkhedeen@kennesaw.edu
Dr. Linda M. Johnston
Office: SO 5034
Office Phone: 678-797-2233
Email: ljohnst9@kennesaw.edu
Dr. Susan S. Raines
Office: SO 5062
Office Phone: 770-423-6081
Email: sraines@kennesaw.edu
Dr. Volker Franke
Office: SO 3002
Office Phone: 678-423-2931
Email: vfranke@kennesaw.edu
CM 7705
Advanced Applied Skills Training: 2 Credits
Description: Students are given the opportunity to practice advanced skills in a particular area of the
Conflict Management field. The selection of this training should be based on the student’s interests,
the choices available, and the requirements of particular types of field work.
Learning Objectives:
 The students will practice hands on skills in their chosen area of interest
 The students will reflect on their experience with faculty
 The students will articulate their area of interest
CM 7710
The Practice of Conflict Management (Domestic Field Experience): 2
Credits
Description: Students are given the option to travel to a conference, training, or cross-cultural
experience. The selection of the appropriate experience should be based on the student’s interest, the
dates of travel, the choices available, and the programmatic necessities. Domestic options in the past
have included attending the ACR Conference, visiting CM offices in DC, and Ombuds training.
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Learning Objectives:
 The students will articulate an area of interest in the field
 The student will experience travel with a group
 The students will examine an area of the Conflict Management field in the US
Required Assignments and Grading:
CM7715
The Practice of Conflict Management (International Field Experience): 2
Credits
Description: Students are given the option to travel to a conference, training, or cross-cultural
experience. The selection of the appropriate experience should be based on the student’s interest, the
dates of travel, the choices available, and the programmatic necessities. International options in the
past have included visiting the UN School of Peace in Costa Rica, attending classes at the European
Peace Institute in Stadtschlaining, Austria, a cross-cultural trip to Egypt, an ADR focused trip to
Barbados, and Ombuds training in Canada.
Learning Objectives:
 The students will articulate an area of interest in the field
 The student will experience travel with a group
 The students will examine an area of the Conflict Management field outside the US
CM 7720
The Practice of Conflict Management (Field Study and Field Work
Report): 5 Credits
Description: This course includes a field study in a specific conflict environment chosen by the
student with the guidance of the faculty. The students will analyze conflict in the chosen environment
and, where appropriate, will make policy recommendations or design and plan implementation of the
intervention processes to address the conflict. The students will prepare an extensive written report of
this analysis, accompanied by an annotated bibliography.
Learning Objectives:
 The students will articulate a particular area of interest in the field of Conflict Management
 The students will design a practice objective for themselves with the guidance from faculty
 The students will plan field study and field work
 The students will plan an intervention or implementation project
 The students will write a final report based on their learning
Dr. Tim Hedeen tkhedeen@kennesaw.edu
Dr. Linda Johnston ljohnst9@kennesaw.edu
Dr. Susan Raines sraines@kennesaw.edu
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Dr. Volker Franke vfranke@kennesaw.edu
Office Hours: Since students will not be on campus very often during their fieldwork, the faculty will
meet with individual students on a case-by-case basis, either in person or by telephone and email.
Students may request a meeting with their supervising faculty member at any time and an appointment
can be made for a mutually-convenient time and place. Students are required to check their email at
least once per week in case the supervising faculty member is trying to contact them.
Students will devote at least 150 hours during the Summer and/or Fall Semester to the Field Study and the
Fieldwork Analysis Project and Report. Students may start on this work as early as Spring Semester 2009
with the permission of the Director.
The Field Study in a specified environment will take the form of:
(1) A field placement (traditional field work) in the areas of education, public affairs, business,
international affairs, or other applicable field with approval of the supervising faculty member;
or
(2) A research project developed and implemented by the student investigating some issue of
conflict management in the specified environment; or
(3) The development of a conflict management system or curriculum materials in the specified
environment.
Students will have the opportunity to experience, observe, and practice conflict management
skills in a setting chosen for evaluation and study with the approval of the supervising faculty member.
Students conducting an field work will articulate and stipulate their own professional learning
objectives at the site, consistent with the needs of the site supervisor and with the support and approval
of KSU faculty. Non-field work students will develop and articulate specific objectives for their
fieldwork experience and work with their supervising faculty member to ensure that the fieldwork
chosen will meet these objectives.
Although some projects will be more academic than others, each project will have an
experiential, hands on, component. Examples of the experiential components are: a traditional field
work placement, a series of interviews, casework, and participation in meetings related to the approved
project, etc. Each student will examine the conflict management literature in the area chosen. This
literature review should include academic and scholarly journals and/or academic texts, as applicable
to the project. Students are encouraged to begin the literature review as soon as he/she is sure of his/her
chosen fieldwork.
Students conducting an field work are expected to act as ambassadors of KSU and the MSCM
program. This means that you are to be professional at all times and use the conflict management skills
you have studied and practiced throughout your degree program. If your field work experience has
specific attendance hours, be sure to be on time and come fully prepared to contribute to the
organization with which you are interning. Your final grade will be determined by the oral
presentation, the fieldwork report, and the written final report from your field work site supervisor.
Students who fail to fulfill the obligations specified in their fieldwork contract may receive a failing
grade for the field work and would be required to satisfactorily complete a second field work or
fieldwork project in order to graduate with the MSCM degree.
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Description: The student will report on the field project or field work, analyzing the conflict in the
area chosen. Where appropriate, the student will make policy recommendations or design and plan
implementation of intervention processes to address conflict in the environment. The fieldwork report
will consist of a written report and an oral report. The oral report will constitute 30% of the final grade.
For students engaged in a research project, program evaluation, or design of curriculum/training or
dispute systems the written report will constitute 70% of the final grade. For those students engaged in
a traditional field work, the remaining 70% of the grade will be determined by a combination of the
student’s written report and the evaluation provided by the student’s field work site supervisor.
Required Assignments and Grading:
Field Experience Oral Presentation - 30%: A first draft of the report will be turned in on October
26th, 2009. A formal written and oral presentation of the report will be given to the faculty and
members of the Cohort on November 12th and 13th, 2009. New members of Cohort X may also be
invited to attend these presentations. Students should prepare for a fifteen minute presentation, which
should incorporate PowerPoint slides, visual aids, or handouts as appropriate. No more than five
minutes should be devoted to reviewing the student's experience, as presentations should emphasize
two critical elements: how the project relates to the literature and practice of conflict management, and
what practical implications and key insights the student has drawn from the project.
Field Experience Analysis Paper and Field work Supervisor’s Report (for field work only) 70%: For those students participating in an field work, the final report submitted by the fieldwork site
supervisor will have a significant impact on this portion of the final grade.
The student will prepare an extensive written report of this analysis. The report should be no more than
40 and no fewer than 25 pages, excluding the references and bibliography. You need not resubmit the
annotated bibliography from the summer paper (CM 7600). Instead, your final paper will include a
reference/bibliography section, similar to other papers turned in during your program (but likely much
longer). Remember, this is an academic paper. Proper citations are mandatory. Check your Rules for
Writers for proper citation form.
Since each project will be substantially different, it is difficult to state ahead of time what should be
included or excluded from each paper. Here are some guidelines.
Goal of this paper:
As part of the Specified Environment paper completed during the summer, you have done a literature
search and annotated bibliography for your project. You should not include this entire literature review
in your final paper. Instead, go the next step and state the ways in which your project or field work
added to knowledge that was missing from the existing literature. How did your project or field work
add to your knowledge of this specific area of Conflict Management? The goal of the Field Experience
Analysis Paper is to clearly describe what you did for your fieldwork and why you did it, and provide
evidence of what you did (such as sample curricula, evaluations from trainings, reports from the person
who you interned with, etc.). What did you learn and how does it add to existing knowledge of the CM
field and to your knowledge? Was the literature search that you did during the summer complete, or
have you discovered other sources of knowledge? Do you have new sources that you should add to
your bibliography?
For example:
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If you designed curricula and/or conducted a training…
Briefly describe the existing state of knowledge in the area you focused on for your fieldwork. Make
sure you properly cite your sources. Did you develop new training or curriculum? If so, you need to
express how your work builds upon, or contradicts, knowledge from the existing literature. Did you
reinvent the wheel? If not, tell us why you needed to create new materials. Was there a deficiency of
materials in this area?
Next, you should describe your fieldwork. Discuss the reasons why you chose to focus on X and not Y.
What did you include in your training/curriculum and why? What did you exclude and why? Who is
the appropriate audience for this training or curriculum? If you conducted training, provide information
from training evaluations or other feedback. What would you change in the future to make it more
effective? If you were able to conduct a training, how did you gain entry? What ethical principles are
useful in this environment? What were some of the challenges that face a new trainer? The goal is
analysis.
How do you plan to use what you learned? Is there a market to which you can “sell” your
training/curriculum? Is there a need for such training? If not, tell us why not. Did you make important
connections? As appendixes, include your PowerPoint slides (if applicable), facilitator’s guide, training
evaluation forms, role-plays, or other material you developed for the training/curriculum.
If you had traditional field work…
How did your field work support or contradict what you learned from the literature? In what ways did
your field work add knowledge above and beyond what you learned from the literature? Did you learn
anything that you could share with others to advance the state of knowledge in the CM field? Make
sure you properly cite your sources.
Tell us about your field work experience. What are the main lessons you took away from this
experience? In what ways did your experience mesh with what the literature in this area predicts? Did
you learn anything that could add to the understanding of practitioners or theoreticians in this field?
What ethical considerations did you encounter? What would have made your field experience more
valuable? Did you make important connections? How do you plan to use what you learned? Overall,
how will your future work, career, personal life, etc., be enriched by this experience? If you predict no
enrichment for yourself, why not? What advice could you give for future students so that they can have
more enriching field work experiences?
If you conducted original research or a program evaluation…
How did your research support what you learned from the literature? In what ways did your research
add knowledge above and beyond what you learned from the literature? Did you learn anything that
you could share with others to advance the state of knowledge in the CM field? Make sure you
properly cite your sources.
Describe your study, including the experiential portion of your project. What kind of research design
did you use? How did you navigate the Human Subjects review process? What were the methods of
data collection and the sources of data that you used? Who were your participants (if any)? What were
the challenges to gathering and analyzing this data? What ethical challenges did you encounter?
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Describe your findings. How does your research add to, or contradict, knowledge from previous
studies? Did you find what you expected to find? How can theory and/or practice be improved by what
you found? How will you disseminate your findings so that practitioners and/or other researchers can
use them? What questions remain unanswered by your study? What are some possible “next steps” for
future researchers seeking to build on your study?
Overall Expectations:
One of the essential skills of the conflict resolution professional is the ability to create a safe space.
This class, and indeed all of the classes in the MSCM curriculum, is intended to be an opportunity to
explore freely and to take risks in a safe environment. Students are expected to participate in creating a
dynamic learning environment for all members of the class.
Grading:
Grades will be based on a combination of written work, attendance and participation, and
presentations (if any).
What does an A, B, or C “look like?”
Students whose participation, papers, and exam answers exceed adequate levels will receive an A.
Students whose participation, papers, and exam answers are adequate will receive a B.
Students whose participation, papers, and exam answers are not adequate will receive a C or lower.
Late Work:
Homework and research papers must be turned in on time. Late work may receive a reduced grade. If
you are not able to turn an assignment in on time, please let us know in advance.
Written Work:
Written communication, as well as oral communication, is the hallmark of the effective conflict
manager. For this reason, writing is an important component of the MSCM program. Written work will
be evaluated primarily on the basis of content. However, originality, organization, writing style, and
research (if applicable) are important components of written assignments.
Course Attendance:
Since class meetings are limited, it is imperative that students attend all class meetings. Individual
exceptions to this rule will be limited to cases of emergency or serious illness. If a student fails to
provide acceptable documentation that an absence is due to emergency or serious illness, the grade for
the course in question may be lowered one letter grade.
Academic Integrity Statement:
Every KSU student is responsible for upholding the provisions of the Student Code of Conduct, as
published in the Undergraduate and Graduate Catalogs. Section II of the Student Code of Conduct
addresses the University's policy on academic honesty, including provisions regarding plagiarism and
cheating, unauthorized access to University materials, misrepresentation/falsification of University
records or academic work, malicious removal, retention, or destruction of library materials,
malicious/intentional misuse of computer facilities and/or services, and misuse of student identification
cards. Incidents of alleged academic misconduct will be handled through the established procedures of
the University Judiciary Program, which includes either an "informal" resolution by a faculty member,
resulting in a grade adjustment, or a formal hearing procedure, which may subject a student to the
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Code of Conduct's minimum one semester suspension requirement.
Please note: Turning in the work of others as your own, turning in papers downloaded from the
Internet as your own, using more than three substantive words in order from an uncited source, and/or
using ideas or concepts borrowed from others without adequate citation will be considered plagiarism.
We reserve the right to review any student papers and assignments through plagiarism-review services
or software.