Educational Simulation Play as a Transcultural Approach to Resilience and Reconciliation

Educational simulation plays facilitate real experiences in a safe environment and, therefore, are appropriate for gaining a better sense of the dynamic relationships at work in complex environments, for exploring good fits and practical solutions, and for understanding how mistakes occur, mainly when plays, built upon an explicit or implicit model of reality, engage multiple participants and reproduce some of the political, coordination, communication, and coalition-building challenges that often accompany peace and stabilization operations that exist in the real world. Thus, they become an exercise in social science theorizing and a research tool to examine the implications of hypothesized relationships and conflict dynamics in a variety of forms (abstract plays or role-playing activities). By emphasizing needs, interpretations, stereotypes and resources of all participants, simulation plays facilitate strategies for resilience and reconciliation.