(P/B) PEER MEDIATION

Παρουσίαση

Playground squabbles, name-calling, bullying, picking fights, being excluded from a group: trivial problems, some adults might think, but how the children deal with them is the basic learning material that will mould their attitudes to conflict in later life. Should adults step in and resolve them, or is there another way? Who better to understand children than children themselves?
In his years of experience in developing peer mediation in primary schools in Northern Ireland, the author has come to recognize the creativity, patience, commitment and integrity that children demonstrate in resolving their conflicts by using such a process.
So what is it precisely? Peer mediation is a structured process, managed by two mediators who are children. They introduce the process, establish the ground rules, listen to each side of the story, and facilitate those in dispute in identifying the problems, brainstorming solutions, and engaging in a give and take process - towards, hopefully, a mutually agreed solution. It is a process that teaches fairness and, most importantly, empathy.
However, getting peer mediation embedded in schools is no simple matter: it is not just a question of supplying workshops for training; it requires that a school undergo major changes. For the training will transform the culture of the school, teaching styles and relationships in the classroom - from authoritarian into democratic - and the changes must be consistent, overall and ongoing, teachers can find this transformation difficult to accept, and sometimes give children too little credit for what they can do.
Using the direct experience of a number of people who have successfully set up pear mediation in schools, this book explains, step by step, how to set up such process in your school - the pitfalls and the rewards - and offers advice and practical experience on how to overcome resistance.
The efficacy and power of peer mediation should not be underestimated. In Northern Ireland, its methods were adopted for the Peace Process. As the former President of the Irish Republic, Mary Robinson, aptly said: "if (peer mediation) works in the playground, there's no reasons why adults can't learn a lesson from what, after all isn't just child's play". (from the publisher)

Περιεχόμενα

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. WHAT IS PEER MEDIATION?
2. HOW ARE CHILDREN TRAINED IN PEER MEDIATION?
3. CAN CHILDREN MEDIATE CONFLICTS? YES!
4. HOW DID PEER MEDIATION GET INTO PRIMARY SCHOOLS?
5. CHILDREN'S NEEDS AND THE LEARNING PROCESS
6. PEER MEDIATION SKILLS AND THE NORTHERN IRELAND PEACE PROCESS
7. HOW TO RESPOND TO RESISTANCE
8. HOW TO CREATE A SELF-SUSTAINING PROGRAMME IN SCHOOLS
9. IF PEER MEDIATION IS THE ANSWER, WHAT IS THE QUESTION?
10. IS PEER MEDIATION ALWAYS THE ANSWER?
11. THE FUTURE OF PEER MEDIATION
References
Bibliography
Appendix 1. Questionnaire: Where did peer mediation come from?
Appendix 2. Questionnaire: Summer 2000
Appendix 3. Questionnaire: The Future of Peer Mediation - Follow-up
Appendix 4. Panel of Mediation UK Conference, June 1998