Theatre skills for conflict management: Using theatre performance techniques to teach college students better conflict management abilities

Abstract

The life of a traditional aged college student is filled with many fast-moving decisions and new life experiences. When conflict arises in a student’s life, it can upend a student’s progression if they are not properly trained to deal with conflict. Current conflict management teaching curricula being given to students are insufficient due to overly complex language and lack of emphasis on the social and emotional intelligence skills training required for successful conflict mitigation. To correct this problem, this dissertation proposed the creation of a new conflict management curriculum that combined traditional conflict management techniques with select theatre performance techniques to account for the inadequacies in current conflict management curricula. This new curriculum was tested through a workshop process with traditional college students attending a mid-sized, Midwestern research university acting as participants. All participants either worked for or lived in a building run by university housing services. Interviews with students were conducted post-workshop, and a qualitative, narrative based, case study was conducted to test this theatre infused curriculum. Justification for this new curriculum, detailed lesson plans for the workshop, a breakdown of the creation of the new curriculum, and the results of the case study can be found within.