School violence has encouraged the introduction of peer mediation programs in spite of the absence of reliable research and program evaluation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of peer mediation programs in 44 Massachusetts secondary public schools, describing the objectives, evidence, and conditions that fostered or hindered program success. The research questions that guided this study asked 132 respondents to indicate the objectives of peer mediation programs, evidence of success, and conditions within the schools that helped or hindered success. Of 42 objectives, only peaceful resolution of conflict was reported by a majority of the schools. Four others--learning alternative ways of dealing with violence; improving the climate in school and classroom; reducing the number of fights before becoming serious; and teaching students to talk out problems were reported by 41% of the respondents. From the seven most common examples of evidence demonstrating success, a decrease in violence and suspensions was reported by the largest percentage of respondents (38%). Major hindrances to mediation included adult intervention in mediation, lack of administrative funding, and scheduling conflicts. No single condition that either helped or hindered program success emerged in the study. The most common supportive condition was administrative and faculty support, and the most common hindrance was scheduling conflicts. Other hindrances were a lack of a full-time coordinator, and lack of administrative and faculty support. Respondents provided few examples of evidence or conditions to support their claims of success or lack of success. Results indicate that peer mediation was successful in most of the 44 schools in the study, and that every school program was unique. Still, improvements, such as effective program evaluation; greater funding; support for staff training from the state and universities; and closer scrutiny of developments in the field, are necessary. The rise in school violence throughout the nation is forcing educators to respond with programs, such as peer mediation. The blueprint for successful peer mediation programs needs to be designed by each school. Planned properly, facilitated effectively and evaluated appropriately, peer mediation can contribute to the realization of safe learning environments for students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-1679 |
| Date | 01 January 1998 |
| Creators | Guy, Stephen Burdette |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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