Peer Mediation
A research project on implementation into primary and secondary schools in VictoriaAuthors: Stern F. & Taylor P.
Examined how peer mediation programs were implemented within 15 primary and 15 secondary schools in both country and metropolitan Melbourne. Respondents were gathered from asking high profile agencies and/or trainers in the mediation field as it was difficult to obtain any form of central list.
The study assessed qualitative information gathered from verbal and written responses to questionnaires. The bulk of interviews were conducted face to face however a small number completed written questionnaires.
In each participating school, we conducted interviews with;
- The person in charge of the program i.e. a student welfare coordinator
- A second person at the school involved in the program but not in a
direct capacity i.e. a principal, coordinator etc
- Two students who had conducted peer mediations for the school
- Questionnaires responses covered thirty one areas and included questions
around such issues as;
- How did the program first get thought about?
- School culture before and after peer mediation was introduced
- Resource allocation and difficulties in having a peer mediation program
- Selection processes
- Publicity of the program
- Support of mediators
- Evaluation of mediations
- Satisfaction levels of both mediators and mediations completed
Quotes included:
"I think it came from a welfare coordinator in the past who went to a conference and heard a speaker and we decided to go from there."
"We were aware of other schools within the district who had tried the program."
"The program first got thought of about after a member of the welfare committee brought a newspaper article about it to a welfare meeting."
Once, peer mediation was completed, the program was often incorporated into the school's welfare and discipline policy. As such, the study suggests that it is slowly becoming an important part in the culture for many of the schools surveyed.
Peer mediation appears to have been used for what has been described as less serious issues and incidents. However they account for a high number of on-going disputes within school communities.
Secondary Quotes:
"Your passive harassment and your passive bullying is so much harder to detect and work with.."
"Yes, squabbles. Squabbles over boyfriends, squabbles over who slighted whom at the party on Saturday night or who didn't speak to whom on the way home from school and so and so stole my friend or my friend's not talking to me anymore or she's got my socks from P.E. that sort of stuff."
"It was inclusive of concepts such as, non talk by males around issues of relationship and sexuality, 'big boys don't cry', them and us, solutions resolved through physical or stand-over tactics."
Primary Quotes:
"The usual niggling things, like dobbing and the little incidents like he took the ball off her or he changed the rules of the game."
"We had some concerns with regard to the smaller children not being able to solve their own problems and felt that the teachers seemed to solve all their problems for them. We wanted to encourage the children to solve their own problems."
Like many other school based programs, peer mediation suffers from a lack of allocated time and money. Constraints include time in running and organising mediation sessions and financial limitations in bringing in outside trainers and/or teacher release time.
The lack of resources has clearly resulted in disappointment with the number of cases referred to mediation. There is however a strong commitment from students to participate, and they report along with staff that they believe that peer mediation is effective within schools. Anecdotal evidence also suggested that students referred to mediation have a higher satisfaction rate than having conflicts dealt with by teachers.
When we asked students for their opinion about the effectiveness of peer mediation they responded:
Secondary Quotes:
"It did. I think they had a really good attitude towards it in knowing that they want to get their problems solved and to have someone more their age that isn't an adult, might make them feel a bit more comfortable and they'll make steps to getting it over and done with a lot quicker."
"I think it did. I remember the first one I did was about a kid being called names about his weight and stuff and it did help him, it was all sorted out and I see them in the yard and they are friends."
"They know that we're students there to help them, we're not there to muck around and everything we say and do is always in confidence."
"Usually when someone is being a bully, the teacher will say why are you bullying this person, you know it's wrong etc but with mediation they can actually hear how they made the other person feel and they can understand it."
Primary Quotes:
"I think it did because a lot of the kids come in and they'd be crying because they weren't friends and then they would go off hugging each other like they were best friends again."
"The students think it's better because they can't get in trouble, otherwise if they went to a teacher they could get into trouble, so they choose mediation."
"Yes it helped the students and they haven't been in any more trouble, I don't think."
In writing up the results of the research carried out, we have not attempted to compare or contrast these results against other studies carried out. To our knowledge there has been no other large scale studies carried out in Australia on peer mediation implementation.
It is hoped that this research report provides a rich source of information and a snapshot of peer mediation as it currently exists. In years to come it may well serve as a useful benchmark for measuring how far peer mediation has either progressed or regressed.
Copies of this report are available at a cost of $31.90 (GST inclusive) from:
Anglicare Victoria - Glenroy Youth Services
Tel: (03) 9306 0000 Fax: (03) 9306 6307
Email: glenroy@anglicarevic.org.au
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