Dealing With Conflict: Mediation Programmes in Schools

Mediation is a voluntary service, in which two mediators help the parties in dispute to find a way of resolving their problems. In mediation the disputants (or parties) are asked to tell their 'story' about what happened, helped to clarify the issues involved, encouraged to understand how each other feels about these, and are helped to find some resolution which each party agrees to, which can work, and for which both can share responsibility. Even though a logical resolution might be obvious to the mediators, they do not tell, or even suggest to, the disputants what they should do. Their role is to act as 'agents of reality' to try and find workable agreements. At the end of a mediation session the disputants might not necessarily be friends, but they will usually have gained a better understanding of the other person(s) involved in the dispute.