School Mediation Articles

Resolving conflicts among youth is an area of ever increasing importance. Articles below are just the beginning, you can locate additional Youth and Schools related information through a Topical Search (Above) on "Youth", "Schools" and "Peer Mediation".

We will be adding articles and information over time and hope that this Section will be valuable to students, teachers, parents and schools administrators.

Mediation in Disability Cases - Video
This video by Leo Hura shows a parent with a disabled child. She finds herself in a dispute with her school, but through the mediation process she reaches agreement with school regarding her disabled child in a culinary program.

Thoughts on Gender Bias in Co-Parenting Mediation
This article examines the influence of gender dynamics in the mediation process. It further explains the ways in which gender differences are perceived by mediators and participants. It concludes with several suggestions on how to overcome these barriers to an unbiased mediation.

AudioBlog: Restorative Practices: Can Ancient Traditions Of Accountability And Peacemaking Create Safer Schools Today
Many schools need more practical and effective measures for ending violence and disruption and for promoting more cooperative behavior. Restorative Practices derive from indigenous cultures and are based on time-honored principles of respect, resolution and community.

Back to Basics
Contrary to what occurs in most pre-schools, while these pre-schoolers had lots of energy and were very active, they did not fight, yell or whine.   1 Comment

Punishing Bullied Teens
Recent research is teaching parents, professionals, and teens a lot more about bullying. The spate of recent suicides (bullycides) has caused more schools to take it seriously and help all of us recognize that bullying is not conflict between two individuals that can be resolved with improved communication, but is instead a deliberate campaign of intimidation and terror to injure an individual who is the target.

Freaky Friday And Building Parent-Teen Empathy
When children become teenagers, parents and teens alike may find the transition difficult and filled with conflict.The movie Freaky Friday offers an example of how empathy and understanding can grow even between a feuding teen and parent.

The Use Of Mediation In Schools
A healthy and productive school (or any other organisation or group) is one with plenty of conflict that is being dealt with well by people who are open to the gifts that it can offer. It is one where people manage to step beyond their fears to a place where there is compassion, creativity and readiness to learn.   1 Comment

Bullying Responses
A new book by an Australian expert on bullying in schools has set out six methods used by teachers to tackle this scourge of the playground.

Where Do We Belong? New Mediators And Our Role In Current Mediation Practice
This article addresses two questions facing mediation students and new lawyers interested in mediation. First, why is it difficult coming out of school to get mediation experience. Second, what can mediation students and new lawyers do to get real experience.   1 Comment

Wheeler, Terry: Training Children in Negotiation Skills - Video
Terry Wheeler discusses research that shows mediation training for children can be effective, though a trainer must impart a comprehensive training, not just the first stages.

Barbara McAdoo: High School Project Leads to 'Helping' Values - Video
Barbara McAdoo shares a life-changing experience she had as a senior in high school when she chose to do a project on segregation.

Bill Lincoln: Mediating Desegregation Dispute - Video
Bill Lincoln describes a case he mediated where various ethnic groups called for his leadership in mediating disputes surrounding desegregation in schools.

Linda Singer: Mediation Can Prevent Violence - Video
Linda Singer describes one of her concerns as being the lack of education within schools about alternative methods to resolve conflict. Mediation has been proven to have a positive impact on reducing school violence.

La Mediación en el Ámbito Escolar: ¿Método RAC o Método REC?
Las instituciones educativas tampoco escapan a las situaciones de conflicto; muy por el contrario deberán, si aún no lo han hecho –a partir de la nueva concepción de escuela moderna- capitalizar el conflicto y educar a partir del mismo. Ello significa que todos los actores de la comunidad (léase: educadores y educandos, no docentes y familias de los alumnos) deben esforzarse por abandonar la connotación negativa tradicional del conflicto y optar por su cambio de valencia. Sólo así, la tan anhelada “educación para la paz”, será posible.

Parent – Teen Conflict, Managing it Constructively
by Bob Blyth
“Parent – Teen Conflict, Managing it Constructively” deals with managing the conflict inherent in parent – teen relationships, why managing this conflict constructively is important and some tools that parents and teens can use to manage their conflicts constructively.   4 Comments

Hope For The Future? Follow The Kids!
by Peter Adler
Resolving complex, highly political, public policy issues is inherently messy. On occasion, a unique chemistry of effective leadership, good technical information, and principled negotiating actually does the job. It beggars the imagination to think that a bunch of smart high school kids could create inspired political breakthroughs where leaders in government, industry, and non-profits have repeatedly failed. Nonetheless, that is what recently happened.

T.A.C.T. (Teens and Conflict Together)
by Suzanne VM Petryshyn
T.A.C.T. (Teens and Conflict Together) is a program that provides participants with the self-awareness and the communication skills needed to empower them to use a problem solving process when faced with conflict. Fun, educational games and exercises reinforce learning by providing a safe environment for the participants to explore conflict.

The Kid’s Guide To Working Out Conflicts (Book Review)
by Jon Linden
In Naomi Drew’s newest book she presents one of the very best exhortations and explanations ever written on Peer Mediation. Peer Mediation usually refers to the process of mediation between and with Children/Adolescents in school situations. Most books on the subject try to help schools develop “in school” programs to support a Peer Mediation Implementation. It has been definitively shown, that such a program provides an outlet, a forum to discuss and resolve conflicts that arise and such a forum significantly reduces school violence. The forum allows the release of frustration and retaliation in violent manners, especially by the abused.

Parent Teen Mediation - A Family Systems Perspective
by Suzanne VM Petryshyn
Parents and Teens often find themselves in conflict with each other. Parent Teen Mediation is a helpful alternative that promotes healthy communication between Parents and Teens about their issues. Parent Teen Mediation offers a family system faced with conflict with an opportunity to promote understanding in order to resolve the issues within the system.   2 Comments

Lessons from the Playground: What We Can Learn From How Kids Resolve Their Disputes
by Jeffrey I. Abrams
Disputes and conflict are an inevitable part of life. While some believe that learning to deal with these daily challenges is something that can wait until adulthood, it is actually on the playground, as pre-schoolers, where dispute resolution skills are first developed. At a very early age, most pre-schoolers learn the valuable lesson that selecting the appropriate dispute resolution process is often the single most important factor in the successful resolution of a dispute.

Cleaning Up the Schoolyard
by Sue Farley
The classroom isn’t the only place in the school community where tension can mount. Whether it’s in the grounds, the staff room, the board room or even at home, the staff, pupils and management provide a fertile environment for dysfunction to manifest and simmer away in.   1 Comment

Student/Peer Mediation: A Multi-Purpose Tool
by Jim Eisele
After reviewing several articles regarding student/peer mediation, one thing is clear: student/peer mediations have several benefits, many of which are long-lasting.   1 Comment

Peer Mediation in Chautauqua County, N.Y. Schools
by Jamestown Area Labor-Management Committee
Teaching conflict resolution to elementary, middle and high school students is as important to preparing tomorrow's workforce as their reading, writing, and math classes. In fact, the value and importance of the benefits derived from peer mediation programs - from the skills the young mediators gain to the overall impact the program has in school - parallels the values and benefits employers derive from a well-trained and skilled workforce.

Community Conferencing for Young People in Conflict
by Dr David Moore
In the classroom of a Sydney secondary school, an exam is in progress. Two Year 10 students are arguing over a copy of a book. The book is thrown across the aisle. The teacher calls for quiet. One student mutters to the other, 'We'll sort this out at lunch time!'   3 Comments

Guest Editorial for Youth and Schools Section
by Jim Eisele
There are many different options as to what can be done to make our schools a safer place, especially in the area of reducing violence. Conflict resolution has been shown to be one of those answers.

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