Mediation as a Process for the Management of Conflict and the Improvement of Coexistence in Educational Centres. A Study Based on the Perceptions of Secondary School Students

Abstract

Abstract School mediation is a strategy which is increasingly being implemented in a greater number of educational centres because of all its benefits. Besides being a communicative process which allows confronting conflicts in a participative manner, it involves learning different social and personal skills. Ultimately, it enables the strengthening of the students’ interpersonal relationships while fostering coexistence at school. If coexistence is built by action and the school is a setting where continuous interactions occur, it seems appropriate to think of the school environment as a place to learn how to coexist. Nevertheless, the studies aimed at knowing the impact of mediation are scarce. This article presented here arises from this context, given the need as well of implementing quality mediation actions and programs at school. The main goal is to learn about the students’ feedback. The students participating in mediation processes came from secondary schools in Valencia (5 centres), Castellon (4 centres) and Alicante (5 centres). By means of an ad hoc designed survey, information from 310 students has been collected. A descriptive and inferential study shows as a result the broad agreement among the participating students in evaluating mediation very positively, stressing its impact in conflict resolution and in the prevention of serious, violent situations. On the other hand, the main reason to attend mediation was identified to be the solution of problems, while name-calling and rumours were the most frequent source of mediated conflicts. Regarding things for improvement, it becomes clear the need to provide information about mediation services at schools, to train all students and to expand the roles of mediation.