Conflict/Resolution in the Digital Age: An Introduction to CRESST

by PhD student, Josiah Lenton

My earliest involvement with CRESST (Conflict Resolution Education in Sheffield Schools Training) was during my own time in primary school, some 15+ years ago, when I was among the first of many pupils to participate in their peer mediation training. In many ways, then, beginning my PhD in collaboration with the charity has felt like more of a “return” than a completely new association. In this blog post, I wanted to briefly discuss CRESST’s ongoing work with children and young people, and to introduce my own doctoral research.

CRESST is a Sheffield charity that works with schools across the north of England to enable young people to learn and practice conflict resolution skills. We believe that, when equipped with the right training and support, young people can handle interpersonal conflict well.

CRESST splits its core work with children and young people across two programmes. The Young Peacemakers Project works with primary schools to set up peer mediation schemes whereby older students support younger ones at break times. This work has met with plaudits from all quarters. A recent 5-year summary report, drawing on survey data from nearly 600 pupils and 400 staff members, found that in excess of 99% of pupils found the training enjoyable and useful; likewise, in excess of 99% of staff found it enjoyable, and felt that they gained useful knowledge about mediation. The secondary Youth Resolving Conflict project includes group work programmes for those most ‘attracted to conflict’, a programme for training older students as ‘conflict coaches’ and a set of lessons for KS3 students. It is in the context of this continuing work with secondary-aged students that my research is situated.

‘Curious About Conflict’ is a set of 6 PSHE lessons — CRESST’s first curriculum offer aimed specifically at secondary school-age students — which aim to enable students to explore and understand what conflict really is, our brain chemistry when in conflict, how different people use different conflict styles, how conflict escalates, develop skills in listening, questioning and speaking out, and the experience and differences with conflict online. These lessons, which have received a Quality Mark from the PSHE Association, seek to equip students with the knowledge and skills to be able to handle conflict well and navigate more successfully the relationships around them.

These lessons are one of a number of resources based on the charity’s experience of working in over 30 secondary schools. CRESST’s group work programmes both equip young people with skills and strategies and also support the participants to draw on their expertise with conflict to co-produce creative outputs; past examples include art installations, films, music and a booklet entitled ‘Antisocial Media’ that explores conflict online and shares some strategies from students about how to handle difficult online interactions.

Building a greater understanding of how young people experience conflict on and offline, and exploring what new approaches to conflict resolution education might emerge through an in-depth consideration of young people’s online interactions, is at the core of my PhD study. Considering the prevalence of numerous patterns of behaviour online (such as the idea of social media ‘echo chambers’, or of the ‘keyboard warrior’, an individual who actively seeks out online conflicts) that have led to wider concerns about a potential erosion of public debate through a climate of online hostility, the need for such work has perhaps never been of more importance. In light of the Covid-19 lockdowns which have seen such a substantial proportion of our social interactions move into digital spaces, phenomena like the above seem only likely to increase in relevance.

As CRESST’s usual activities begin to resume, I intend to follow, in an ethnographic manner, the introduction of the PSHE resources, and use this as a way into discussing with young people their experiences of conflict on and offline, with the goal of refining the specific aims of the research in direct response to young people’s lived experiences. Much in keeping with CRESST’s previous work, I am seeking to collaboratively design as much of the research as possible with the young people themselves. The project aims to develop effective, innovative strategies to support conflict resolution specifically by listening to and responding to the concerns of young people, and empowering them to handle conflict well — in other words, conflict resolution for young people, by young people.

CRESST is really keen to connect with others to discuss important issues relating to their work and have been planning a series of webinars with iHuman. The first, on the 10th May at 12.00–13.30, is focused on experiences of conflict in video-games and online spaces.

Josiah Lenton is a White Rose DTP Collaborative Award PhD student at the School of Education, The University of Sheffield, working in partnership with CRESST, supervised by Dr Becky Parry and Dr Tim Herrick.