1. “Mediation as a Strategy of Pacific Resolution of Conflicts in the School Environnement: The Mediation Team of the School Centre” School Mediation Comenius Project 2007-2009

2. A strategy of pacific resolution, where people who have a conflict can sit together with a third neutral person, a member of the Mediation team, talk about their problem and try to reach an agreement in a positive and collaborative way. Strategy Pacific Resolution Conflict MediatorTalkAgreement

3. Advantages of incorporating the school in a system of school mediation It develops attitudes of interest and respect for other people. It increases the ability to solve conflicts in a non violent way It develops the ability for dialogue, communicative habilities and active listening. It contributes to improve interpersonal relationships between the different members of the school community. It creates a relaxed and profitable atmosphere. It favours the autoregulation to find negotiated and autonomous solutions. It reduces the number of sanctions and expulsions.

4. TYPOLOGIES OF MEDIATION Linear (Harvard) Circular-Narrative (Sara Cobb) Transformative (Bush y Folger) Foundations -Inspired in bilateral negociation. -The cause of theconflict is linear, it is disagreement. -The context does not determine the conflict. –It is necessary to remove the idea of “fault” to find future solutions. -Based on the communication. -The causes feed back creating a circular effect of continuous cause and effect. - Systemic principles. -The centre of interest are all the aspects related to the conflict. -Causality is circular. - -Causes and effects follow one another all the time. Method -Arranging the process of the conflict. -Proceding to the clarification of the causes. -Creation of favourable contexts to facilitate solutions that can be accepted by all the parts. -Trying to make the parts conscious of their own abilities to change and to transform their conflicts. Objectives -Reducing the causes of disagreement, Bringing nearer the objectives of the different parts. -Finding an agreement. -Making the parts think over the conflict with the objective of modifying a negative process into a positive one. -It is about the way in which the parts find ways of cooperation, reconciliation, without pretending to find solutions to the conflict. Characteristics -The agreement is essential. -The agreements are tactical. -The important thing is to improve the relationships, the agreements are only circumstancial. -The agreements are not important. What needs to be developped are the abilities for the management and the transformation of conflicts. The different methods cannot be considered incompatible but on the contrary, they eventually become complementary. The interest of the mediator for helping efficiently will make him conciliate different methods, making flexible the process of mediation, moving away from attitudes that try to show the superiority of a methodology on another one. Each case, each situation, will lead us to the utilisation of one method in particular, with the final objective of helping the person who has asked for it. Vinyamata Camp, E. (2003)

5. 1. Mediation is a strategy which can be used in any conflict 8. All the pupils must go to mediation to solve their conflicts. 10. The important thing is finding a solution to the conflict 5. During the mediation, there are no rules, the important thing is talking about anything. 4. The headmaster and his team are the persons who must send people to mediation 3. It is a strategy of training of all the school community (teachers, pupils, parents and staff). 7. Mediation improves communication between persons. 9. It is the persons who have the conflict who find solutions, learning how to manage their conflicts. 6. It is voluntary, the people who decide to follow the process of mediation take the decision individually. 2. It is a systematic process, there are a series of stages that must be developed.

6. Characteristics of school mediation It is a pacific strategy. It is voluntary, people decide to follow a process of mediation because they have decided to. It is a systematic process, there are a series of stages that must be developed. During the mediation, the communication and the collaboration between the persons is favoured. Through mediation, mediators help people to meet and communicate. It is an educative process which transforms the persons. It is a stragegy of training of the whole school community (teachers, pupils, parents and staff). It is the persons in the conflict that find solutions, learning how to manage their own conflicts. The process is confidential.

7. Spontaneous Mediation A person sees a conflict and immediately offers to mediate between the two opposite parts. Institutional Mediation The persons who have had a conflict ask voluntarily for the help of the Mediation Team in the school.They choose the mediators and try to find an agreement to solve the problem. This mediation requires the existence of people trained to be mediators. External Mediation When there is a conflict at school and there is no one able to find a solution, help is asked to an expert from outside the school to try and find a solution. Mediation done by Adults. The adults that are part of the school community (parents, teachers, and staff) are trained to be mediators and involve in trying to find a pacific solution to the conflicts that take place in the school. Peer Mediation Some of the pupils of the school has been trained to solve conflicts through mediation; when there is a problem between two pupils, the mediators propose to help to try and solve the conflict through dialogue.

8. Starting Tell me Situate the conflict Ways of solution Agreement John Paul Lederach Premediation

9. SESSION 1 : Making up the group (group dynamics) SESSION 2: Education for Peace, Human Rights, Conflict SESSION 3: Social Skills in School Mediation SESSION 4 y 5: Communicative skills for Mediation SESIONES 6 Y 7: School Mediation Week end in a youth hostal or rural hotel combining training sessions with leisure in a natural environment. TRAINING OF NEW MEDIATORS Model of IES “Ramiro II”

10. Conflict “Orientador-a” Headmaster Delegates Form masters Pupils Teachers Families Individual request for mediation and choice of the mediator Coordinator of the Mediation Team Talk to the other part and accept mediation Premediation 2 mediators BREAK MEDIATION Mediation classroom Class time

11. http://comenius.iesramiro2.es/