Mediation is the third part of our topic on Conflict, Coexistence, and Mediation. Below is a basic excerpt of what this concept aims to achieve in conflict resolution.
Being a rational, unique, and irreplaceable being, humans possess the capacity for ideation and choice of ways to live, feel, and act. The ability to reason and choose brings with it differences in ways of relating and interpreting thoughts, feelings, and emotions, which sometimes leads to conflicts and differences between people.
In sections I and II of this topic, the conceptualization of conflict and coexistence was subtly addressed; however, this topic remains incomplete if mediation is not worked on and understood as part of conflict resolution itself.
Mediation originated in North American schools in the early seventies, as religious and community movements began to concern themselves with social justice and became interested in promoting development programs and fair, effective, and efficient conflict resolution procedures.
The concept itself is a conflict resolution process that is built and developed between opposing parties alongside an assistant who mediates in a neutral space and place with the aim of providing a solution and agreement to a specific conflict, thereby achieving commitments that will be responsibly fulfilled based on what has been established.
Mediation is a resource that provides keys to those who are part of the conflict so that they can cooperatively resolve the problem without the support of a third party acting as a judge or arbitrator.
As a resource, mediation allows intervention in individual or collective care processes, such as community, family, school, intercultural, environmental, commercial, among others. Within these processes, mediation possesses certain characteristics that contribute to better process management, such as: voluntariness, impartiality, confidentiality, collaboration, and power between the parties. Each of these adds value to this process to reach an agreement between the parties, considering certain elements (Harvard mediation elements) that would be part of the process, such as position (what each party wants to obtain), interests (what is behind each interest), BATNA, legitimacy or objective criteria, agreement options, communication, and the relationship to consider in the process.
On the other hand, the mediator plays a collaborative role in the process; they are the one who directs and helps improve communication channels between the parties, assists in active listening and a better understanding of the actors’ requirements, and fosters and enhances the possibility of greater resources for agreements and solutions to the conflict. They do not judge the actors or the conflict itself, nor do they reveal their opinions; rather, they reinforce the involved parties’ capacity to choose in making their own decisions. They use communication as their best resource, and sometimes co-mediation exists, meaning when there is more than one mediator in the same conflict.
School Mediation
Focusing on school mediation, each institution has a model of school coexistence. In Chile, for example, there is a regulation that governs the internal rules of educational establishments, even though the rules are developed within the establishments themselves through various guidance departments, management teams, and the entire community in some cases.
In general terms, mediation is much more than a management technique; rather, it is a process of improvement and change in individuals who seek this instance or who are involved in conflicts under the protection of a school coexistence regulation or another.
It is worth mentioning that any mediation process has certain dynamic stages, sometimes repeatable and movable as many times as necessary for conflict improvement. Within the process are the informational message on how to access mediation information; the initial presentation of the process itself and the acceptance of the actors; the accounts of those involved and the expected compensations; the clarification of individual or collective interests of the people (security and identity – interests not always expressed, but paramount – Burton); creation of the agenda based on the points to be addressed, this agenda is made jointly with the main actors of the conflict; creation and verification of solution options for the conflict and the agreement.
In the case of school mediation, programs could consist of student training, mediation among students, training programs aimed at the entire educational community, considering some of the existing models such as the classroom program, legal program, global program, or peer mediation model program, through various communication techniques in mediation such as; encouraging narratives, clarifying ideas, repeating what is relevant, reflecting what is understood, summarizing what has been said, and validating the parties by conveying that conflict itself is natural and can be resolved.
Finally, conflict itself will always be close to people’s lives, as a consequence of being beings with different motivations, needs, and interests in each individual. The important thing is to have the ability to communicate well, clearly, sincerely, and empathetically with others; in this way, the resolution process will be more expeditious, brief, and manageable in our lives.
There is nothing that cannot be resolved through the will of those involved.
Your problem has mediation
For a teacher, being trained in conflict resolution means being better prepared for their educational work. ISEP has designed the Master in Therapeutic Psychopedagogy to address this need.