Mediation
E. H. Butler Library Leadership Series

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The breakthrough X choosing a new road. (1995). Santa Fe, NM: Questions of Balance. 28 min. MediaVideo BF637 .N4 B73 1995

This documentary about peer mediation features elementary and middle school children from diverse backgrounds who mediate conflicts which actually occurred. It includes a bilingual mediation involving the threat of gang violence.

Peer mediation is shown in a documentary format when three eighth grade girls begin name calling which quickly escalates to the threat of a fight after school with gangs and guns.

Peer mediation is shown in a documentary format with three sixth grade boys who find that their rough-house play turns into a real fight.

DOCUMENT

Resolving conflicts. (1995) American Bar Association, Chicago, IL: Special Committee on Youth Education for Citizenship. ED402229 Mic

Organized around the theme of conflict resolution, this booklet provides teachers and lawyers with classroom materials for elementary grades K-3 (Level A), intermediate grades 4-6 (Level B), middle school grades 6-8 (Level C), and high school grades 9-12 (Level D). In addition, each level contains pages for the lawyer (marked by the scales of justice), the teacher (an apple), and the student (a pencil). The booklet contains lesson plans, activities, a studentcommunity service survey, and an evaluation form for lawyers using thematerials. The lessons and activities ask students to investigate the meaning of conflict, the sources of conflict in their lives, and the various ways conflicts might be resolved. The inside front cover provides tips for lawyers preparing classroom presentations. A poster titled "Where Do School Conflicts Happen?" is included.

ARTICLES

Khazzaka, J. (1997, Jan./Feb.). The instructional leader as cultural mediator. The Clearing House, 70, 121-4. EA, PR

Educational leadership involves contact with people from subcultures whose basic assumptions may differ radically from those of the dominant culture. Most educators are significantly challenged by classrooms containing students from other cultures. At best, many educators may be able to sensitize themselves to a few basic realities of their experience and to learn to control their own ethnocentric responses. However, research suggests that effective classroom leadership requires people whose basic assumptions and premises resemble those of their students. The writer discusses differences in instructional leadership, instructional leadership and educational policy, and the bicultural leader.

Part of a special issue on conflict resolution. Peer mediation (PM) programs are emerging as an increasingly popular forum for students to settle interpersonal conflicts. PM is a form of conflict resolution that uses the services of another student as a non-partisan mediator to solve a dispute. Three basic models exist for organizing a PM program: the total school model, the elective course model, and the student club model. The involvement of all students functioning as mediators would represent the ideal development of a school program, but it is more likely that most schools will commence with an elective class or a student club model. Although PM is a relatively new phenomenon in education, programs will and must evolve if the complex requirements of children and youths in an increasingly diverse society are to be met. The consideration of the greater issues of conflict resolution that underlie any mediation model is encouraged among all those who are interested in PM.

Mediation services can help colleges and universities manage or resolve intercultural conflicts among faculty and staff in a multicultural environment. In order to be successful, the mediation program should be guided by specific steps, should select a mediator who possesses certain skills, and should concentrate on developing an awareness of intercultural differences among mediators and human resource professionals. The steps that should be followed by the mediator, the attributes of a successful mediator, and the importance of developing an awareness of the intercultural differences that are frequently the cause of conflict are discussed.

BOOKS

Baldridge, S. (1998). Mediation under the new IDEA: Room to be reasonable. Horsham, PA: LRP Publications.

KF4210.Z9 B34 1998

HD42 .D86 1997

HM136 .F54 1984

LB3013.3 .J65 1995

HM136 .M684 1986

KF9084.Z9 R62 1987

HM136 .S644 1996

B. Barone
Buffalo State College (SUNY)