Tanja Marzidovšek is an English teacher at Šmarje pri Jelšah Primary School in Slovenia. This year she teaches 4th, 8th and 9th grades and after-school classes. She has completed a course for a school mediator and passes on her knowledge to her pupils. She loves working with children and giving them opportunities to learn skills other than English.

E-mail: tanja.marzidovsek@os-smarje.si

 

Introduction

We live at a fast pace. When we finish work, we pick up the children from school, help them with their homework, and do errands. Twenty-four hours a day doesn't seem like enough time to do everything. People are less relaxed, talk less, or their thoughts are elsewhere. Stressful lives also lead to fragile relationships. There are more and more conflicts and there is more violence. The situation is also worse in schools, especially since the coronavirus pandemic. There are several ways to resolve disputes. One is mediation, which I will describe below.

 

What is mediation?

Mediation is a voluntary, fast, confidential and effective way to resolve disputes. In mediation, the parties, with the help of a mediator (a neutral person), try to reach an amicable solution to the disagreement.

In education, there are two models of mediation – school mediation and peer mediation.

School mediation is a way of resolving conflicts between pupils constructively, with the help of a school professional trained as a school mediator.

Peer mediation is a way of resolving conflicts between peers when the mediator is a pupil.

Mediation can help build a culture of relationships at school, further helping to educate children. It is a process of:

- developing active listening skills,

- consolidating cooperation,

- cognition,

- developing respect,

- developing a sense of fairness,

- finding a solution,

- building trust.

 

Training of peer mediators at our school

Mediation has been running at our school since 2011. We have 23 trained school mediators. My colleague and I run annual workshops to train peer mediators. Averagely we have ten peer mediators trained at the end of the year.

My colleague and I start training in September. We introduce mediation to 7th and 8th graders at class meetings. First, we play a short conflict and show how to solve the problem. We watch the video The Blue Eraser and present mediation and when we use it. Soon we put out a call for applications. We take into account:

- gender,

- pupil workload,

- the popularity and communicativeness of the pupils,

- personal characteristics of the pupils.

At the end of the call, we review all the application forms and discuss with the class teachers whether the pupils who have applied are suitable to be peer mediators.

Training then begins. It happens in four workshops of 4 hours each, usually on Saturdays.

We work in small groups, in pairs or individually. Pupils are active and involved all the time. They learn how to deal with conflicts, listen actively, understand other people's points of view, and discover and listen to emotions. They learn to define the problem, summarise it, and avoid washing their dirty linen in public.

At the end of the training, pupils become peer mediators.

Benefits of peer mediation:

- pupils better understand their peers,

- pupils make the process appropriate to their age,

- pupils do not have power over their peers, making it easier to encourage them to engage in

  the process,

- peer mediation teaches a peaceful way of dealing with differences,

- successful conflict resolution at school encourages pupils to practise this in their everyday

  lives,

- boosts self-confidence,

- includes all pupils, including "different" ones.

 

"Extended school stay in a different way"

Since the pandemic started, we did not train peer mediators at our school because pupils from different departments were not allowed to mix. However, we still performed school mediations.

As I also teach in the after-school classes, I "used" the time of the pandemic to introduce mediation to younger pupils. This year, 29 pupils are in my group. The pupils are pleasant, but there are some disputes between them. Most of the time, it's pushing one's way into the queue when headed for lunch. Suddenly, chaos ensues. Despite the conversation, things keep repeating. Then there are arguments, such as taking things, teasing, and insulting.

In January, I decided to introduce mediation to my pupils. I asked a colleague if we could act out an argument in front of the class. The pupils became upset when they saw the two teachers arguing. Our "argument" lasted about a minute or two. Finally, we explained that the dispute had been studied and asked them how we could resolve it. Pupils gave various suggestions, from talking to a third person at the school who would solve our problem to trying to solve it peacefully ourselves. I told the pupils that mediation is one way of solving problems. They listened because they did not know the word before. Some, of course, said they knew what meditation was. I explained that these are two different things. They were immediately up for it when I asked them if they wanted to learn something about mediation.

So the following week, I organized the first short workshop. We selected one pair. Person A had to describe what he did during the weekend, and person B had to constantly squirm in her chair, interrupt him, and laugh while talking. The rest of us were observers. Then the same two pupils acted out the scene again, but this time with A speaking and B listening, sitting still and looking A in the eye. The observers identified the differences between the first and the second scene and why it is necessary to listen to each other.

In the second week, I organized the emotions workshop. I asked them how they felt when they were in a conflict. They said they felt unpleasant, angry, and sad. I read a few sentences in different tones. They needed to find out how I felt. They saw sadness, anger, love, confusion, worry, fear, pride, and respect. I showed them the video The Blue Eraser. I asked them what the mediators did and what the disputers did. After the video, one of the pupils said, "Teacher, you've done mediation with us before." "Yes, that's true. I have done informal mediations with you. The difference with formal ones is that we can perform informal mediations at any time, like a conversation. The pupils find a solution to their problem but do not sign the agreement," I replied.

In the third week, the pupils tried mediation for themselves. I gave them a simple example of the problem, and they had plenty of time to prepare. The pupils acted out a case of two pupils in a dispute over insults. I have to admit that the pupils did a great job, and I helped out here and there.

 

Conclusion

My intention was not to train peer mediators at extended stay but to show the pupils some mediation skills. It has been a while since the pupils first came into contact with mediation. Relationships between pupils have improved. They have become more understanding, patient and cooperative. Of course, disputes still happen sometimes, and that's when pupils remember mediation and are happy to use it.

 

References

Kaplan, N. (2009). Priročnik za usposabljanje vrstniških mediatorjev in uvajanje vrstniške mediacije v šoli. Griže: Svetovalno-izobraževalni center MI.

Prgić, J. (2009). Priročnik za učitelje in ostale šolske delavce: konstruktivno obvladovanje konfliktov, šolska in vrstniška mediacija, vodenje pogovora. Griže: Svetovalno-izobraževalni center MI.

Prgić, J. (2010). Šolska in vrstniška mediacija: vse kar morate vedeti o mediaciji v šoli. Griže: Svetovalno-izobraževalni center MI.

 

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