Class UN Project

In our Individuals and Societies class we have been studying conflict.  To better understand conflict we examined the dynamics of the Middle East.  While there are many conflicts ongoing in that region we focused mainly on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Before we started studying the the backround of this complex and long running conflict, our teacher took some class time to talk to us about the ATL skill Consider ideas from multiple perspectives.  We talk about how important it is to try and understand complex issues from many different angles.  We practiced some basic role play scenarios where we had to identify the perspectives of the different people involved.  It mostly felt really artificial at first, but when we actually started working on the Middle East conflict, it was actually really helpful.  Knowing that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a real issue facing the world really helped try and understand the various perspectives.

The actual project we were working on was a UN Summit simulation to discuss peace talks between the various sides.  We were split into delegate groups and assigned a group to represent.  The options were:

1) Likud party
2) Labor party
3) Fatah/PLO
4) Hamas
5) Arab League
6) Quartet (UN reps, USA, EU, Russia)

I was assigned to the Quartet.  We really had to study and try to understand the perspective this outside group brought to this regional conflict. 

Understanding the perspective of our assigned group was obviously important, but what we soon discovered is that it really paid off to have a good understanding of the perspective of the groups we were negotiating with.  By knowing their perspectives we were better able to reach a consensus agreement.  We incorporated elements in our proposal that would appeal to their perspective on the conflict. 

I can see how this skill will be very useful beyond just his project.  Being able to consider an idea from multiple perspectives will help me deal with any conflicts that I might encounter.