Our research was guided by the following question:
How has the Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills and Habits (KASH) taught in the Conflict Counseling and Mediation Training (CCMT) better equipped participants to transform family conflict?And was designed to meet four objectives:
Objective 1. Identify the context and type of family conflict that community peacebuilders have experienced.
Objective 2. Identify and explore which KASH (Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills, and Habits) from CCMT have been useful to community peacebuilders in transforming family conflict.
Objective 3. Explore what skills/strategies peacebuilder families are actually implementing during their conflicts.
Objective 4. Identify continued needs for peacebuilder families for building healthy family systems and transforming family conflict.
We chose to conduct a holistic, multiple case study. Our data sources included: interviews and role plays with four graduates of the CCMT course (2 men, 2 women; 2 from Phnom Penh, 2 from the provinces); focus group discussions with select members of Peace Bridges’ staff; a Rapid Assessment Survey of peacebuilders and partner organizations; Conflict Counseling and Mediation Training Lesson Plans, and Peace Bridges' 2009 External Evaluation.
Each case participated in an in-depth, semi-structured interview and accompanying role play that was followed by a focus group discussion of the data. In-depth interviews were conducted by teams of two Peace Bridges staff members (women with women and men with men). Interviews were recorded and interviewers completed narrative reports. Following interviews, each case also participated in a role play. These role plays were designed by Peace Bridges’ staff to reflect culturally relevant conflict scenarios. Each role play was video recorded. The final stage of data collection utilized focus group discussions. Each case interview and role play was reviewed by the focus group and their reflections were recorded. Our intention was to gain the insight of those familiar with Cambodian culture and CCMT to identify and clarify the skills and strategies actually being implemented by participants during family conflict, as well as the continued challenges for cultivating peace.
Data was analyzed using: 1) relevant theoretical propositions, 2) pattern matching and 3) cross-case analysis. As the data was compiled, each case was analyzed using the theories that had initially led to the study. We then looked for patterns within the case while comparing the empirically based pattern (i.e., the experience of the participant in engaging family conflict) with the predicted one. In this case, our prediction was that the peace education provided in CCMT also helped to cultivate healthy family systems, so we looked for patterns that demonstrated how and why (or how not and why not) CCMT KASH was useful in the family context. Finally, the cases were compared in order to modify our theory and develop policy implications. In this final stage of the analysis, we looked for larger patterns of both the usefulness and limitations of CCMT KASH in transforming family conflict.
