Resolving disputes

Peer mediation in schools

Pupils mediate between their peers, by fixed rules and without a teacher at the table. It works better than it first sounds

Key points at a glance

In peer mediation, trained pupils mediate between people their own age, without a teacher at the table.
Those in dispute find the solution themselves; it ends with a written agreement everyone signs.
Fixed rules apply: listen, let others finish, no insults, everything stays confidential.
Training to become a peer mediator usually takes one school year.

In numbers

mediators per session

trained pupils of the same age group

steps in the conversation

from the rules to the agreement

questions of blame

what is settled is the future, not the past

How to become a peer mediatorAfter frieden-fragen.de by the Berghof Foundation

Look at your own habits
The training starts with the question of how you yourself deal with conflict.
Learn to lead a conversation
So that everyone gets to speak and can say what they think.
Listen closely
Most important is hearing what the other person says and means, in other words active listening.
Practise in role play
The course of a mediation is played through many times before the first real conversations. The training usually takes one school year.

What peer mediation achieves and where it ends

What it achieves

Those in dispute find the solution themselves, nobody is condemned.
It settles what applies from now on, not who started it.
The result keeps working in the same classroom.
Well established programmes strengthen social skills and the school climate.

Where it ends

Violence, bullying and criminal acts belong with the adults at the school.
Where one side clearly has more power, voluntariness is only claimed.
Without fixed times, a room and a responsible teacher, a programme fades away.

Origin: Developed out of mediation, established in German schools since the 1990s
Where it is used: Schools, youth work, leisure facilities
What it takes: Training over several weeks, a mediation in one session
Third party: Two trained peers, no teacher at the table
Author: Johannes Max Harms

Black and white photo of a wet schoolyard seen from above, children in winter jackets standing in groups in front of the school building — Break time in the schoolyard of the Bieringen primary school, around 1980.Photo by Rauser, around 1980, Hohenlohe-Zentralarchiv Neuenstein, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

What is peer mediation?

Peer mediation transfers the procedure of mediation into school life. Trained pupils mediate between classmates, along a fixed sequence and without a teacher sitting at the table.

The training runs for several weeks depending on the programme and covers active listening, conducting a conversation, handling feelings and reading moods. It is delivered in clubs, project weeks or by outside providers.

The difference from the usual handling of conflict in class is the role. A teacher decides, grades and knows the history. Mediating peers do none of that, and that is exactly where their effect comes from.

How does a peer mediation session run?

In five steps: agree the rules, hear both accounts, clarify feelings, collect solutions, write the agreement down. The sequence is deliberately always the same, so that it holds under pressure too.

Two points are decisive. First, no question of blame is settled: the conversation is aimed at what should apply in future, not at who started it. Second, the proposals come from the disputing pupils themselves.

At the end there is a written agreement with a date to check back. Without that date the agreement stays a good intention, and experience in schools shows it is precisely this last step that regularly gets dropped.

When does peer mediation fit?

For conflicts among peers that repeat and disrupt daily life: exclusion at break, arguments over places and belongings, insults, entrenched group conflicts.

It fits because the parties go on dealing with each other. A reprimand ends an incident, not the situation in the class. A result both found themselves keeps working in the same classroom.

According to the specialist bodies, programmes of this kind strengthen social skills and affect the whole school climate, not only the cases mediated. The learning effect reaches the mediators at least as much as the disputants.

Where are the limits of peer mediation?

The clearest limit is violence. Physical assault, bullying and criminal acts do not belong in a mediation between peers but with the adults of the school, and where necessary with outside bodies.

The second limit is imbalance. Where one side is markedly more powerful, voluntariness is only asserted, and a result can be pressure rather than agreement. Recognising such cases in advance is part of the training.

The third limit is organisational, and it is where most programmes fail: without fixed times, a room, a responsible teacher and a steady intake, a peer mediation programme dies out within two year groups.

How do you start with peer mediation?

With the question of who carries it. A programme needs at least one teacher with a defined responsibility and hours for it, otherwise it hangs on volunteers and ends when they leave school.

Then comes the training. There are tested materials and providers for it, including programmes run by youth organisations as clubs in primary and secondary schools. None of it has to be invented.

The third step is the one most often missing: making it known. A mediation service a class does not know about goes unused. Fixed times, a visible room and a short introduction in every class at the start of the year decide how much it is used.

The core

The mediators decide nothing and know nothing better. They only hold the procedure in which two others can settle it.

Sources

All methods

The steps

Agree the rulesAt the start it is settled what applies: let each other finish, no insults, confidentiality, voluntariness. The rules come before the content, because otherwise they would have to be negotiated mid-argument.
Hear both accountsEach side describes what happened from their point of view. The mediators repeat back what they understood. Nobody contradicts, and nothing is compared.
Clarify feelingsBoth say how it was for them. This step is why the procedure works in schools: it turns two opponents into two people who went through something.
Collect solutionsThe disputing pupils propose themselves how things should go on. The mediators collect and do not judge. An outside proposal would be a verdict, and nobody keeps a verdict they did not make.
AgreementThe result is written down and signed by both, with a date on which someone checks whether it held.

Frequently asked questions about peer mediation

What does a peer mediator do?

A peer mediator brings those in dispute together and guides them through a clarifying conversation. They do not judge or propose a solution but make sure everyone gets an equal say. At many schools peer mediators are also called conflict pilots. According to the Hamburg authority for schools and vocational training, specially trained pupils settle conflicts among younger schoolmates in a fixed, ritualised procedure. The aim is a solution without losers.

What rules apply in a mediation conversation?

At the start the mediators introduce the ground rules, as described by frieden-fragen.de, a service of the Berghof Foundation: listen to each other and let each other finish, no insults and no physical violence. Everything that is said stays in the group and is not passed on. Then everyone involved describes the dispute from their point of view, including how they feel about it. Finally a solution is sought together. If everyone agrees, a written agreement is drawn up and signed by all.

How do you become a peer mediator?

Through a training that, according to frieden-fragen.de, usually takes one school year. It includes reflecting on how you deal with conflicts yourself and learning to lead conversations so that everyone gets a say. Listening closely is especially important, which is what the method of active listening practises. The course of a mediation is rehearsed in many role plays before the first real conversations take place.

What is the difference between peer mediation and mediation?

At heart there is none, because peer mediation is a form of mediation. The Hamburg school authority uses both terms for the same procedure: impartial third persons mediate with the aim of a solution both sides accept. The differences lie in the setting. Peer mediation at school is carried by trained people of the same age and usually takes one session. Mediation between adults is governed by the German Mediation Act, often with several sessions and a mediator who has their own training for it.

Does peer mediation make a difference at schools?

The Hamburg authority for schools and vocational training points to long-term evaluations according to which a well-established peer mediation programme has positive effects on pupils’ social skills and on the whole school climate. The words “well established” are what matter: it takes trained mediators, a fixed room and teachers who actually refer disputes to mediation. Violence, bullying and criminal acts remain the responsibility of the school itself.

From a procedure to a mission of your own

Every one of these methods was developed by people who had a dispute in front of them and wanted to handle it differently. The same stance is what it takes on a small scale: in a neighbourhood, a school, a club.

Find your peace mission