An examination of mediation from the perspective of high school students in the role of disputants, an initial exploration

Abstract

The focus of this study was the mediation program that was instituted as part of the Kildonan East Collegiate Conflict Resolution Initiative. The purpose of this thesis was to collect and analyze the experiences of students who have had their conflicts resolved through mediation. These experiences were collected through a process of detailed interviews. This area of research, the disputants' perceptions and understandings of their experiences in the mediation process, and the method of collecting data, detailed interviews, were se ected because of the little attention this area has garnered in previous research and that most of the data that was collected in this area was done by survey that failed to capture the richness and fullness of the disputants' experiences. The results of these interviews tend to indicate that ediation offers the school administration an effective option in resolving student conflict and that mediation may have the potential to impact on how students resolve subsequent conflicts. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)