Related Projects
Institute leaders have worked and continue to work separately and together on various projects which relate indirectly to the Institute. While these projects are not connected directly with the Institute in any way, and do not share funding, they do serve to inform the thinking of Institute leaders and other members of the conflict resolution community on the value of Relational premises and where further work would be productive.
The Practice Enrichment Initiative
To continue and build upon the work of the Training Design Consultation project, the Practice Enrichment Initiative was undertaken in the Fall of 1998, with funding provided by the Hewlett and Surdna Foundations. This two-year initiative consists of a series of concurrent projects designed to produce a body of practice enrichment resources for the field. Each project in the series is described below.
The "Pictures of Practice" Project
In this project a small group of expert practitioners is working together to present, view, and closely analyze mediation videotapes, The group is using these concrete pictures of practice to explore common understandings of practice and to clarify points of confusion. The goals of this project include: (1) clarifying specific mechanics of practice, especially those that have been unidentified or undervalued in the past; (2) identifying essential practice skills that should be accounted for in certification and assessment protocols; and (3) producing model videotapes that concretely illustrate specific elements of good practice.
The "Training Assessment" Project
In this project a group of trainers and researchers are working together to review the form and content of several major mediation training initiatives and also to consider how the impacts of training might be measured. The goals of the project include: (1) assembling a catalog / typology of major training methods being used; (2) formulating hypotheses about which methods are likely to be most effective in affecting trainees' practices; and (3) developing research recommendations on how to assess the impact of training on practice, possibly leading to a pilot research study to test hypotheses about effectiveness.
The "Purpose Drives Practice" Project
In this project several thoughtful veterans of the field are exploring how "policy" decisions about mediation implicate underlying values. The goals of this project include: (1) clarifying the values that seem to underlie the different positions commonly taken on key policy matters; (2) exploring the value differences implicated in differing policy positions.
