what is teacher student mediation.pdf

Restore the Respect

How to Mediate School Conflicts and Keep Students Learning

by

Ondine Gross

Nationally Certified School Psychologist Champaign, Illinois

Contents

  1. A Call to Action: Reforming Discipline, Improving Relationships, and Building Better Schools
  2. Systems to Help Students: How Response to Intervention and Multi-tiered Positive Behavior Supports Transform a School
  3. What Is Teacher–Student Mediation?
  4. How to Conduct Teacher–Student Mediations
  5. What Is Required of a Skilled School Mediator?
  6. Sources of Teacher–Student Conflict, Problem-Solving Strategies, and Sample Mediations
  7. Feedback on Teacher–Student Mediation
  8. Promising Data: Mediation Is Effective
  9. How to Conduct Student Mediations
  10. Mediation with Adults in Schools: The Next Frontier

About the Author

Ondine Gross, M.S., Ed.M., is a nationally certified school psychologist who has worked in public school settings for more than 30 years. She began her career in diverse California public school districts, and the California Association of School Psychologists named her an “Outstanding School Psychologist.” In Champaign, Illinois, Ondine works as the school psychologist at Centennial High School.

What Is Teacher–Student Mediation?

Understanding is another name for love; love is another name for understanding. —Thich Nhat Hanh

Teacher Susan Schneider: As a teacher for 37 years, the single most important factor in the classroom is a positive and mutually respectful relationship between the student and teacher. Mediation is a way to foster empathy, understanding, and a humanization between each member—student and teacher—for one another.

WHAT IS MEDIATION?

The Latin root for the word mediation means “middle carrier.” Mediation is an intervention to help people in conflict reconcile differences, settle a dispute, or reach a compromise. The outstanding Getting to Yes books illustrate how to understand and conduct negotiations. In a school context, the Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education (CADRE) provides families with excellent resources on steps to resolve complex educational disputes with their child’s school district. However, this book promotes the use of a voluntary and efficient mediation technique used among teachers and students.

The goals of restorative justice intervention in schools are to address the harm committed and enhance responsibility and accountability, build relationships and community, and teach students empathy and problem-solving skills that can help prevent the occurrence of inappropriate behavior in the future. Oakland School District has been praised for the implementation of restorative justice principles and practices in order to build community and respond to student misconduct.

The use of mediation is continually expanding within educational, community, and youth settings. Mediations aim to restore respect and improve relationships so that teachers can teach and students can learn. The following principles are useful in school settings:

  1. Impartiality: Mediators do not take sides.
  2. Confidentiality: A mediation is a private meeting.
  3. Self-determination: Participants choose to talk about whatever topics they wish.
  4. Voluntariness: Participants come to mediation voluntarily and stay voluntarily.

Why Mediate with Teachers and Students?

Principal Greg Johnson: Teacher–student mediation is a common-sense solution that improves student learning and teacher morale.

Mediation helps teachers rebuild relationships with students and gives students a voice to express feelings respectfully. It also helps bridge racial and cultural divides, fostering respect and promoting cultural awareness.

Consider a scenario: Sammy, a shy high school freshman, struggles academically. A mediation meeting could provide a safe space for Sammy to discuss his challenges with Mr. Perkins, fostering understanding and potentially improving his learning experience.

Mediation provides the means for a humanizing process where both teachers and students can be heard and understood. It’s a chance to resolve conflicts that otherwise sap the joy from teaching and learning.