European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin 7 10 September 2005

European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005

Title: Mediation Devices in Schools – from the Class Assemblies to the Whole School. A multi-case study

Freire, Isabel, Caetano, Ana Paula, Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, University College Dublin, 7-10 September 2005

Abstract

Continuing the research presented last year in EERA, in Crete (Caetano & Freire, 2004), we now present a new multi-case study, focused on class assemblies as a device of conflict mediation and in formal mediation devices inside school, implemented to prevent and to deal with children and adolescents at risk. Problems of the indiscipline, violence, dropout, poverty, multicultural conflicts, are some of the issues that school has to deal with. Here, the mediation process intends to establish relationships between several instances inside the school (teachers, tutors, students…) and between the school and the community (families, support institutions, local authorities…). The privileged research strategy is the ethnographic approach. Documental analyses (of class diaries), the video and naturalistic observation, interviews and questionnaires to the students are some of the main research methods and techniques. Besides the goal to contribute to the knowledge of the Portuguese reality in the field of mediation in education, we pretend to conceptualise and problematize it. This is, to conceptualise and to put in question the field and the concept of mediation, where groups are organised to deal with their problems and conflicts and formal devices are created to deal with several problems in a wide-school perspective.

Document type and origin conference paper, presented at ECER 2005 - European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005

Suggested key terms Mediation, conflict, class assemblies, whole school approach, case study

Freire, I; Caetano, A.P. 2005 [email protected]; [email protected] Faculty of Psychology and of Educational Sciences, University of Lisbon

Network 15 – Research Partnership in Education European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005

1. Introduction The study that we are now presenting is part of a more extended investigation project, which focuses on mediation in education and which uses multi-case studies as the main methodological strategy. With this project we intend to contribute not only to the familiarization with the Portuguese reality in the field of mediation in education (there are some experiences and projects on the field, but systematic investigation that allows the development of the knowledge of mediation processes is still missing), but we also intend to contribute to deepen the conceptualisation, analysis and empirical knowledge concerning this theme. The investigation issues that are raised refer to the comprehension of the mediation processes, contexts, their purposes, conflicts and problems they deal with and their effects. The accumulation of case studies in several intervention fields, and the deepening of different mediation modalities (either formal or informal mediation; either developed by adults or by youngsters or children; either at a group, institutional or inter-institutional level) allows the organization of a more extended and systematic meta-research and a consequent transversal comprehension of the cases, with a view to attain the general objectives, already mentioned. The year 2004 constituted an exploratory phase of the project. Three case studies have been developed in different educational contexts (from first cycle -the primary school- of basic education, third cycle, 7th – 9th class, of the basic education to higher education), which allowed, besides other aspects, the conception of an analysis model (Caetano & Freire, 2004). Currently, we continue the project by developing four new case studies at schools of the basic and secondary education in the Lisbon area. Two of the four case studies focus on the role of the mediator of the class-group, constituted in assembly, in conflict management, while in the other two case studies the investigation focus is on formal mediation processes developed on the school level (through the intervention of a social mediator and teacher-mediators in disciplinary intervention offices, etc.). This lecture presents two of the four cases, studied in this investigation, chosen because they are clearly mediation cases and, in many aspects very contrasting. In the final part, we develop a critical reflection on the cases and a problematization of these cases considering neutrality issues, the role of the collective and the individual in mediation, institutional self-regulation and tension between the different cultures in school and

Network 15 – Research Partnership in Education European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005 the involving community. A complexity approach is present in this investigation, and on a final reflection we will emphasize its characteristics.

2. Theoretical Framing

Over the last decades, schools have been suffering great transformations concerning the social composition of the population that goes to school, the organization of curricula and its contents and finalities, even aspects related to micro-politics, like the achievement of a greater autonomy in relation to the central bodies of the educational systems. However, in its more essential aspects, school, in general, has changed little or nothing. Even nowadays, at the beginning of the XXI century, we are not far from the remarkable “pedagogical conformity” that Goodlad (1984) observed in over ten schools at the beginning of the 80s of the last century, and confirmed by many other studies. Especially in regard of what school can and should contribute to the socialization of the new generations very little has been done. The essence of the pedagogical relationship still continues to be based on a high asymmetry of power that benefits the teacher – it is the teacher who still retains all the power. Mostly, the teacher’s predominant role is to limit the student’s initiative opportunities, and, thus, the silent passivity of the class- group becomes a virtue to be reinforced. Usually, the power of the group is not cultivated in regular academic activities. It is almost exclusively in extracurricular activities (sports groups, clubs…) that there are opportunities to work with common objectives, to contribute towards group solutions, to succeed through the division of tasks and to experience success as a member of a group. But these activities are few and not every student participates.

It is true, that school in general, each school in particular and each educator with its group of students, is confronted with unequivocal changes and new demands every day, with which, most times, teachers are not prepared to handle. At most different levels, teachers experience a sentiment of tension between the “old” and the “new”, between what makes them feel comfortable, but at the same time does not help them to deal with the new problems and the new situations they face are, therefore, challenging but simultaneously create instability, fears, dilemmas, frustrations.

The introduction of new approaches to the interpersonal relations in schools, as it is the case of mediation, imposes a profound reflection on the role of school and the teacher in our present society and on the way it is applied in the daily life of each school and each class, contradicting the idea contained in the metaphor “the school is pouring new wine into old wineskins” (Zabatel, 1999). New practices require the assumption that tensions and conflicts exist, but there

Network 15 – Research Partnership in Education European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005 are also ways of dialogue between the sometimes contrary or even antagonistic interpretations of the same reality. Nowadays the educators are frequently confronted with dilemmas because they are placed between the “old” way of “doing” education and the new perspectives, resulting from the democratic and multiethnic societies. Those dilemmas are intimately associated to the teacher’s questioning of the position he should assume on each situation and on each context that he should assume in view of the continuum delineated, for example by each of the following constructs: control-participation, guilt-responsibility, exclusion-inclusion, collectivism-differentiation, cultural standard-multiculturalism; individual-collective.

Traditionally, and as we mentioned above, the relationship teacher/student is based on a hierarchical position of the teacher and presupposes a relation of asymmetrical power, in which the teacher retains the control and the students submit to it. How can we articulate this reality and this interpretation of the pedagogical relationship, observable every day in different schools and at various different levels, with the ideals of democratic participation, education towards citizenship and with the finality of school in guiding the individual towards the construction of their own autonomy? Is there an irreparable shock between these two visions of school and pedagogical relationship? We think there isn’t. As long as school continues to be an institution, organized in the sense of contributing to the development of the new generations and to the transmission of a cultural standard, which is valued by a certain society in a certain historical period, there will be an imbalance of power between the teacher and the student, because it is the teacher who retains the knowledge, and knowledge means power. However, retaining the power in a democratic society does not mean to submit the other, but on the contrary, to create conditions for the other to participate, to develop himself and to learn self-regulation, in the sense of building his autonomy and identity.

The practices of mediation can contribute to help educators find new ways of acting, without giving up their status and role. We are not only referring, not even preferentially, to the widely publicised mediation practices, so characteristic of American schools, which aim only at conflict resolution. In our opinion, the existence of school mediation devices, at the various different levels of human relationships and in the different learning contexts can stimulate new forms of relationships, new values and the experience of a new school atmosphere, where conflicts can be solved in a more pacific and participated way and, more than this, the conflicts could be prevented through the promotion of healthy interpersonal and more horizontal relations and the participated resolution of problems. Mediation itself contains values; it is based on principles of pacific and preventive pedagogy and of education for peace. Its application presupposes the development of personal competences like active listening, dialogue, self- 4

Network 15 – Research Partnership in Education European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005 regulation and self-control, empathy and responsibility and values the potential of the cooperative contexts in interpersonal relations. Consequently, it cannot be reduced to the replication and institutionalization of a group of more or less stereotyped techniques of conflict resolution; on the contrary, it must emphasize the introduction of a mediative spirit (Zabatel, 1999) in each school. This mediative spirit is the source of a cultural and personal transformation (Schmitman, D. F., 1999; Gergen, K. J., 1999) and implies the assumption of a group of educational principles and values, especially by the adults, and, in this sense, mediation can function as a “lighthouse-idea”, according to Edgar Morin, that guides us towards new paths and through the construction of new realities. The following principles are essential, considered in a constructive perspective, in opposition to the technocratic one (Caetano, 2005a):

Principle of construction/transformation – to replace the conflict vision according to the binomial win-loose and proceed with a positive approach of conflict, recognizing its strong learning potential. The classroom and the school are typical conflict places. The access to knowledge, its appropriation and the development of each individual implies a dimension of conflict in all its perspectives. The development of an institution, like school, implies the existence of conflicts, which should, in a mediative way, be considered opportunities of growth and social and personal transformation.

Principle of participation/cooperation – to replace the idea of conflict resolution through control and discipline, or even violence, with the existence of participation opportunities, in which both, teachers and students have a leading role in the search for constructive solutions not only in conflict resolution, but also in the search for cooperative solutions to problems they are faced with every day, in a context of an education for peace and non-violence.

Principle of autonomy – each individual, according to his age and condition, is capable of self- determination, of making decisions concerning his own life; the teacher/educator has a decisive role in creating educative conditions that provide the student with the opportunity to grow in his individuality and in respect for the other.

Principle of responsibility – mediation requires a responsible ethical attitude from the individual, who should be able to recognize the reasons of the other and shoulder his responsibilities. When applied by both, teachers and students, and not only by students, mediation can cause real changes in the ways of conceiving interpersonal relations at school, replacing the idea of guilt with the idea of responsibility.

Principle of diversity – to replace the idea of homogenization that has been the dominant paradigm at school, with the idea of differentiation. All individuals have their own particularities, their own specificities and they have to be able to listen to others and know them in their singularity. Finding complementarities in the differences, including instead of excluding.

Principle of dialogue – to replace the unilateral interpretation of the occurrences by the ones who retain the power with the systematic use of active listening, the maintenance of the adequate communication channels, the capacity of listening to the other without previous judgements and prejudices, the discussion and argumentation, always looking for basic agreements and consensus.

Principle of complexity – the introduction of mediation appeals to complex thinking, in other words, it implies that simple and reducing interpretations of reality have to be put aside. In the perspective of complexity the whole is in the part or, in other words, each school and each class contains the society it belongs to. This principle shows us a contextualized, integrated, dialogic, interdependent and, therefore, multidisciplinary vision of interpersonal relations, also assuming their unpredictability.

The passage from a paradigm based on institutional power to a paradigm based on co- responsibility and cooperation, presupposed by the introduction of educational mediation, implies big changes concerning the teacher’s practices and conceptions.

In this lecture we present two studies of naturalistic character, with which we intend to deepen the reflection through the analysis of the mediation practices on the field. In one of the studies the class-group, which includes the teacher, works as the mediator of the conflicts between the students that are analysed in a class assembly. In the other case, we analysed the role of an institutional mediator (social mediator) whose action is mainly focused on the contact areas between school, family and community.

3. Presentation of the case studies

The first case – the Class Assemblies – corresponds to a cooperative management device of the class’ life, being the conflict mediation one of its functions. This device is inserted in a more extensive non-disciplinary curricular context of citizenship education. The teacher also performs the function of a class tutor, constituting a structuring element that confers specific characteristics to the mediation work. We should also point out the dimension of the collective in mediation, considering the whole class as a conflict mediator, and the fact that the

Network 15 – Research Partnership in Education European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005 teacher/class tutor of the class is a part of the collective of teachers of the class – the class council. This collective is responsible for the organization of the pedagogical activities, the assessment and regulation of the class’ life.

In the other case – the Social Mediation – the mediator appears as an individual hired by the school to do the mediation between the school and the community. In opposition to the previous case, the social mediator does not carry out the functions of a school teacher and does not participate in any educational collective structure within the school, in a systematic way. There are, of course, links with other educational school agents, but these links happen occasionally and in an individualized way, not in a collective way.

These contrasting dimensions between the cases facilitated a deeper study and comparison, and gave us some ideas regarding the problematization of fundamental issues for mediation.

Both studies represent two kinds of institutional mediation, yet both diverge considering the relation of the mediator with the institutional power. The teacher in the class assembly retains a power legitimated by his own status and ingrained in the history and organization of the school system. In this case, the mediation practices require that the teacher is able to assume an open and impartial posture with the conflicting parts, without forgetting his role as an educator that compels him to transmit certain development structuring values to his students. The posture of the social mediator towards institutional power can be very paradoxical, considering the fragility of his own status in school, because he is a new element without any social roots in a structured and rigid institution. Being intimately associated to the institutional power in school, the institutional mediator will try to find his own status, avoiding some situations and conflicts in order not to be confronted with the established power that he represents but of which he is not part. Can the mediator perform his role as a link between the cultural standard, transmitted by the school, and the student’s original culture, that the school serves, with the necessary neutrality? To what extent can the performance of these new professionals in the educational context, so distant from the structures and dynamics cultivated for centuries in schools, create or not new practices in the sense of establishing real “bridges” between the schools and the families and the communities, and between groups inside the schools, in the sense of creating a new culture of settlement and dialogue?

We now present you briefly each of the cases, trying to triangulate the several data gathered in each of them.

3.1. Case 1 – Class Assemblies First, an investigation team gathered the data on the field and then proceeded with a first analysis of this data1. The gathering methodology contemplated the naturalistic observation of an assembly, the analysis of the class diaries of four weeks of work with the students, the application of a questionnaire to the students and an interview with the teacher. All the information went through a content analysis.

The results of this analysis have also been confronted with the diachronic perspective of the process, experienced over the academic year, and presented publicly by the class tutor, who is responsible for the organization of assemblies, on a teacher’s congress, and the following descriptive synthesis was structured.

The case of the class assemblies takes place in an educational context of the periphery of Lisbon, serving a community, characterized by a medium-high socioeconomic status. The class that has been studied, belongs to the second cycle of the basic education (5 th and 6th class), and is characterized, according to the teacher – class tutor, as a pre-adolescence, participative class, but with difficulties of decentralization and in managing its own problems, being predominant a moral heteronomy and an exterior placement of the locus of self-control and control of others, what may explain the constant appeal to the authority to solve the problems. At the same time and in articulation with the class work, the class tutor favours the work with the other teachers of the class (individually and in the class council), with the parents and with the school’s psychologist.

Class assemblies started after an increase of aggressiveness and insecurity was noticed in the class, with different teachers and different subjects. This increase had been denounced and managed through disciplinary participations. With the conception of the class assemblies the goal was to create a device to help managing these emerging conflicts, but especially, to create a space to promote the socio-moral development, associated to a bigger autonomy and self- regulation of the group, based on the construction of a group conscience, on the cooperation and solidarity, in the respect for social rights and duties, on the participation and co-construction of collective rules and also based on the comprehension of each student in relation to himself and the self-control of his emotions.

The assemblies are organized weekly, in the 45 minutes period destined for citizenship education, and take place in the classroom where the students have most of their classes (the

1 This team was composed of Lídia Castelo Branco, Raquel Maio Oliveira and Sara Pires dos Santos 8

Network 15 – Research Partnership in Education European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005 room is not especially prepared for this purpose). The issues that are considered relevant by each element (including teacher and students) are discussed here collectively. Matters related to classes, teachers, assessment and student’s behaviour are the object of a critical analysis (positive and negative) and a reflection with a view to its improvement. The student’s interpersonal conflicts, but also their satisfactions and dissatisfactions in relation to the fulfilment of the rules of the group are some of the critical themes discussed here. Over the week, the issues, that will be discussed, are signed and registered by the students in a class diary (a poster with three columns, the first one called “I liked it”, the second one “I didn’t like it” and the last one is called “Suggestions”), which is always available for the students. An analysis of these diaries shows that, in the first month in which class assemblies took place, interpersonal conflicts, physical and verbal aggressions and undue appropriation of objects were the dominant issues. Regarding the disrespect of the collective and its rules, the dominant problems were related to communication and movement in the classroom, and more sporadically, to space, hygiene and fulfilment of responsibilities were mentioned by the students. The diaries also reveal improvements that have occurred in the course of time concerning these conflicts and the fulfilment of rules.

The class assemblies are orientated by the teacher, who, performing the functions of the president, is assisted by two students who in rotation with the other students of the class, are responsible for preparing the posters of the week, placing them in the classroom, putting them away every day, and, during the assembly, they are responsible for reading the records, registering the inscriptions and the decisions that are being made.

The assembly activities follow a basic procedural scheme – the secretary reads the register, the proponent presents its justification and the referred to students are asked to comment on the matters. Afterwards, the debate with the rest of the class follows, where the teacher has not only a role of maintaining the discipline, but especially a role of orientating the students towards the deepening of the current issues and the clarification-deepening of the class’ rules. We observed the class assemblies and concluded that the teacher has an intervenient and active role by appealing frequently to the cooperation of the collective and to the decision making that always includes the students or the referred to persons and/or respects the consensus of the group. By analysing the positive declarations, the teacher reinforces and forwards them (entrusting some students, for example, with the transmission of positive appreciations to the referred to teachers). The teacher deepens the analysed problems and conflicts and takes positions on them, proposing resolution alternatives, namely oriented for compromise and cooperation. Frequently,

Network 15 – Research Partnership in Education European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005 he refers to already established rules, with the purpose of solving new problems, but also extrapolates rules through discussion, that can support this resolution. Occasionally, when objections seem to exist, he questions the revision of already existing rules, giving the students the idea and the opportunity of participating actively in the self-regulation of the group. Concerning rules and decisions, the teacher has a role of regulation, of monitoring the fulfilment of the rules after the assemblies.

The group gets involved in the conflict analysis, considering its antecedents, contexts and causes, but also by deepening the existing conflict and emotion processes, as well as the rules of the group and the consequences. In the studied class assembly, the processes of the analysis of conflicts, emotions and consequences were the most frequent. In terms of problem resolution, more than one solution alternative is frequently considered. In this case we observed the prevalence of adaptation alternatives (normally to the claim existing in the complaint), but we also observed alternatives of cooperation, compromise but also aggression. The alternatives are object of deepening and, sometimes, of a partial revision, with a view to integrate the various dimensions of the problem.

In terms of interaction dynamics, the analysis of the process concerning one of the occurrences can illustrate what the assembly is supposed to be – a cooperation space in the management of the class’ issues:

Right after the reading of the complaint by the secretary and the justification of the complainer (“I did not like that B4 was talking about games with B3 in the English class”), confirmed by other colleagues, and after the defence of the referred to student, based on the authority of the teacher (“The teacher did not tell us to be quiet”), the teacher takes on a position, not maintaining neutrality, and analysing the conflict process (“A7 is absolutely right, because B4, even if he is not like that with B3, he behaves like that with other people”) and reflecting on the consequences of the interactions, on the disruption of the class (“at some point the teacher is shattered and cannot teach the class”). Nevertheless, he asks the referred to student to decide and appeals to the cooperation of the group – “B4, will you be able to remain silent? If you need our help, tell us what you need us to do (…) What will we do to help B4?”. After the defence of the referred to student, the teacher insists, encouraging him to analyse his own behaviour (“why do you do this?”) and asks him about his behaviour with a view to the resolution of the problem. Again he appeals to the cooperation of the group and proposes an alternative – “First, B4 will help B3 not to talk constantly during classes; he will not answer back and will tell him to shut up”. But the teacher insists that the 10

referred to student uses his free will. The student agrees with the perspectives of the group and the teacher (“I will try to control myself and will only speak when I am asked and not constantly”). The teacher accepts the student’s decision, and commits to keeping up with the situation (“In a week I am going to verify what is going on”). But again the teacher speaks to the whole group asking for new alternatives. Several students intervene, suggesting a new alternative to understand the problem (“we must not forget that B4 and B3 are together because B4 has difficulties and needs B3 to explain him things; so, how does B7 know that it is not the case?”). Because of C3’s intervention, the teacher reviews his decision (“exceptionally, B3 is allowed to help B4 with his difficulties and doubts”)

With this example, we observe that the communication between the students in conflict is mediated by the group, which, in a cooperative way, tries to help the referred to student, who is compelled to make his decisions encouraged first by the teacher but also by his colleagues, who help the student by telling him how to act and to comprehend the situation. We should emphasize here the participation of a colleague, (C3), who proposes to reconsider the situation in the light of a more positive perspective that would explain the situation through the cooperation between the students instead of the deviation of the tasks proposed in class. Because of this intervention, the teacher integrated this perspective into a solution of compromise that conciliates the previous considered solutions (the adaptation of the student to the rules and the cooperation between the students to guarantee that the rules are observed), with a new idea of cooperation between the students, which is an exception to the rule – because there is the possibility of parallel communication between the students, as long as it is done with a productive aim and to support the fulfilment of the tasks. An analysis of the interaction movements’ coincides with the interpretation of the mediation process through the bellows metaphor (Caetano, 2005b). In this case, the bellows is constantly inflated by the teacher, who either contracts it around the student referred to in the conflict, so that he is autonomous in his analysis and decisions, or expands it, opening and encouraging the group to cooperate, either in the search for solutions or in a compromise with cooperation solutions. This active role of the teacher allows the circulation of the information and its use to serve the cooperated and simultaneously autonomous resolution of the problems (which agrees with its basic principles and finalities). We should also emphasize the non-neutrality of the teacher, both in the analysis of the situation and in the proposal of decision alternatives. The teacher is not just holding the pair of bellows, he is part of it. He is not outside the system, he is one of its components and he does not resign from his role of intervention. However, at the same time, he maintains receptive and supports the emergence of other perspectives and solutions, taking them 11

Network 15 – Research Partnership in Education European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005 into consideration on the final decision, which, once again, indicates his perspective of a cooperated education.

The analysis of the students questionnaires shows that they consider the assemblies as a space for analysis, discussion and teamwork (“for me it is a space where the classes can discuss any issue”), where they are an active part (“I usually discuss my opinions with the class tutor and my colleagues”). This analysis also shows that the students have internalised an orientation towards dialogue and the collective, as much or more than an orientation for the product and the conflict resolution (also a finality of the assembly). The student’s suggestions of improvement indicate the occurrence of problems related to the observance of rules and the excess of problems and the way those problems are treated, considering that “less important issues should not take so much time to be discussed”.

These problems, which the teacher also identifies, were attenuated in the course of time, with the improvement of the students’ self-regulation (easily verified in the observation …). Thus, there was an evolution in the sense of a bigger autonomy and of a locus of internal control, enabling the students to take the resolution of their conflicts and the construction of their collective paths into their own hands. A greater respect for the rules is an indicator manifested in many diaries. Yet, we also stress the improvement of the interpersonal relations, considering the resolution of conflicts and the resolution of some indiscipline problems.

Nevertheless, and despite the improvement, the teacher may feel dissatisfied with the results, because they did not meet his initial expectations, namely what regards decentralization and reciprocal support, considering that the process is not linear and not equal for every students. This analysis is a result of his conceptions referring to the assemblies. These assemblies are considered cooperative and reciprocal support devices, in which it is necessary to afford a time for discussion, namely for the resolution of conflicts. Dialogue, rationality and an affective distance are fundamental when we deal with conflicts, considered natural and necessary aspects in the life of a group. This interpretive conception of conflict and mediation of the assemblies is completed with a critical perspective. This perspective shows a construction of a collective of cooperation, both in class and in school, which should work towards the resolution of the problems of its students. Thus, and recalling the fire metaphor to interpret these processes, conflict does not appear as a destruction element that we need to avoid and to control immediately, but as an opportunity for dialogue and transformation (Caetano, 2005a).

Nevertheless, the teacher is dissatisfied with the difficulty of the decentralization of his power in the group and with the absence of a structuring procedure of the collectiveness of the written registers of the decisions.

3.2. Case 2 – The Social Mediator

An investigation team gathered the data on the field and proceeded with a first analysis of this data2. In this case, they proceeded with a gathering of the representations of some of the most important intervenients of the mediation process, namely the social mediator, the cultural animator and the president of the school’s Executive Council. Besides the general characterization of its conceptions and practices through semi-structured interviews, they gathered also a retrospective report of a mediation situation in a non structured interview context.

The school of second and third cycle of basic education, where the mediation project has been studied, is localized in the Lisbon periphery, in a city called Amadora. The interest of this school in the mediation project is based on the analysis of the necessities and difficulties of the students and the involved community. The school is attended, among others, by students from a neighbourhood of African culture and by gypsy students. This multicultural community has difficulties with its social integration, difficulties with its relation with school and social problems, among them, drugs trafficking. It is possible to draw a parallel between these characteristics of the community and the family level. Besides the difficulties in accepting the host culture, the socio-economic deficiencies and the devaluation of school, the families have to deal with internal problems of violence. Maybe all these problems are the reason why the students have insertion difficulties, especially concerning the observance of rules, the devaluation of school, the high rate of absenteeism, failures and school dropouts and problems of indiscipline and aggression.

According to this characterization, mediation pretends, in the first place, to improve the relationship between the school and the community, trying to facilitate the social integration of the community and to help the students to overcome their school problems and to improve the relationships between the school and the family.

2 This team was composed of Ana Calado, Marta Trigueiro e Sandra Martins 13

The mediator, who has been hired and who has had specific training in this field, mediates between the school and the community, between the families and the school, between the students and between the students and the teachers, but he also mediates between the families, the juvenile court and the social worker. Thus, many relations are established in which the mediator is always at the core. Concerning school, the mediator values the communication with the Executive Council, the class tutors and the cultural animator. He receives information on the cases to follow and communicates with the intervenients orally or through letters (“the group must always be united and informed”, is one of his expressions). Concerning the community, the mediator establishes direct relationships with the neighbourhoods, namely with the problematic families and groups that attend this school, by organizing activities and by participating in other activities organized by the community and by creating spaces of dialogue. Some of the problems that are detected at a family level are entrusted to the social worker, but there are also direct relations established with the town hall and the juvenile court.

At the same time, and in articulation with the mediation process in school, there is a project of cultural animation, which will animate a proper space and the schoolyards. Besides the guiding of the students to the classrooms and the dynamization of the cultural and leisure activities in school, the animator also intervenes in conflict cases between the students, entrusting them to the mediator, and exchanging information with him and acting directly with the students.

The mediation processes favour a direct contact with the community, whether the mediator remains outside the school, participating and organizing activities, or the parents are present at school, being in direct contact with the teachers and the mediator. The individualized dialogue is a privileged process, established directly with the students, in school, and the families in the neighbourhood.

These processes may be understood as a sequence of stages, in which the mediation school- community prepares and facilitates the individualized and direct dialogue, firstly with the students and secondly with the families (in their neighbourhoods), to deepen the knowledge of the situations and to act interactively with a view to resolve the problems and conflicts. This intervention may, in some cases, entail the action of other entities.

More concretely, the sequence mentioned by the mediator in the conflict mediation between peers, could often begin at the moment of the conflict through the separation of the parts (with a possible action of pacification, suggested by the cultural animator) and a space-time distance, followed by an individualized dialogue with each of the parts and a posterior dialogue with the 14

Network 15 – Research Partnership in Education European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005 families and a new dialogue with the referred to student. In the mediation between teachers and students, the student is asked to admit his error and to apologize to the teacher.

The retrospective report of a mediation case adds an articulation between the conflict mediation processes, between the students and the school-family and family-social worker mediation processes. A more detailed analysis of this incident reveals more concrete clues of the mediator’s performance:

Asked by the class tutor, the mediator is called to intervene, after the occurrence of an incident between two students, on the schoolyard, during a football game. In this conflict (where a verbal aggression is followed by a physical aggression), the cultural animator intervenes promptly and separates the parts and makes them reconcile (using the kiss-game as technique, “the students involved in the conflict have to kiss each other on the cheek, admitting their mistake and reconciling”). But before this concrete situation, the student’s history of violence and failure and the intervention of the mediator in the community are told. It is this intervention of the mediator in the community that helps him to know the families and to diagnose the situations. After receiving a written notification by the class tutor, the mediator initiates the pre- mediation process, by identifying the school course of the student and, only then, by speaking with him. Besides the characterization of the specific conflict situation (according to the student’s point of view), the posterior individualized dialogue helps the mediator to diagnose familial problems (a situation of economical precariousness and familial conflict). Based on this first diagnosis, the mediator comes into contact with the family by going to the neighbourhood and having an individualized dialogue with the mother (because all the attempts to bring the parents to school have been frustrated). The diagnosis is reiterated and deepened, and problems like habitableness, family violence, especially the father against the child, and the devaluation of school by the mother (school failure is considered something normal; the child goes to school only to receive the minimum income) are emphasized. Then, the case is entrusted to the social worker (“this situation worried the mother”). The social worker went to the neighbourhood (“where he informed the parents, that this situation of abuse was untenable and the only way out would be to take them away from the prejudicial surroundings”). Together with the Town Hall, the social worker obtained a temporary habitation for the mothers and the children and attained the removal of the father. As a result, we observed the decrease of the student’s violent behaviours and an improvement of his relationship with the school.

We want to emphasize that, in this case, the dialogue between the students in conflict has never been promoted – the dialogue is individualized and only carried out with the student who is considered the aggressor, assuming that the intervention should only focus on him. In the intervention with the family, we also witness a “top-down” process, in which the mediator, facing a diagnosis of the situation that emphasizes the fragilities of the family, guides them towards a solution in which the family does not take an active part and is not supported in finding ways of self-regulation. The family members are just separated physically, but it seems that any intervention was made on their relationship. Here, the bellows metaphor does not work, because there are no moments of contracting, which encourage the students’ autonomy, and no moments of openness, which are supported by the collective. But there is a progressive enlargement of the contexts and the intervenients of the process – from the student to the family, to the social worker and to the community. There is no real emancipation of the intervenients, symbolized by the contracting of the pair of bellows and by the air exit, in other words, by the main intervenients of mediation who are becoming more autonomous.

The fact that the mediator belongs to the African culture, speaks the Creole language and knows its traditions facilitates the mediation process and helps him to establish a relationship at the same level with the community, facilitating his acceptance and the direct analysis of the community and his mediation work. His linguistic competences and concerns in adapting his language, the respect for traditions, his active listening and the maintenance of confidentiality, his impartiality, tolerance and emotional self-control reveal some of the principles that guide the process and facilitate the mediation.

Concerning the results of the mediation process, the interviewees emphasize an evolution of the relation between the community and the school and the personal and interpersonal development of the students. We verify an increase of the participation of the parents in school and a greater valuation of school and mediation by the community. Concerning the students, there was observed a greater socio-professional integration, a greater valuation of school, a lower rate of absenteeism and a diminution of violence.

However, there are still problems of acknowledging the authority of the mediator, whether at the educational system or the school level. Indeed, the mediator only collaborates with the school during the school year and, although he has been working there for eight years, he has no bond with the school, no tenure or right to receive holiday allowance. This precarious situation of professional instability can be associated to some insertion difficulties in school. Besides

Network 15 – Research Partnership in Education European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005 these problems, the mediator recognizes personal difficulties of keeping an emotional distance (that have been improving) and social difficulties of mentality changing in the community (namely, “the mentality that the teacher can substitute the father”). Another difficulty is the fact that the number of mediators at school is insufficient. It was proposed to the Regional Education Office of Lisbon (Direcção Regional de Educação de Lisboa)3 the creation of recognized courses to train mediators. There are also some projects which intend to increase next year at school the number of mediators from the community (by training them) and develop “an orientation of the students since the beginning until they are integrated in the labour market”.

At the end, we want also to emphasize some problems that have to be deepened and are related to the potentiation of the community in its self-organisation and self-regulation and to the processes of conflict mediation, namely the mediation between teachers and students. Currently, it is favoured the processes of application of norms and conciliation, accommodating to the teacher’s power, which incites the students to recognize their errors and to apologize. Thus, a more autocratic perspective rather than an interpretative and critical one seem to be dominant in relation to the conflict and the mediation (Jares, 2002).

4. Problematization – The problem/question of neutrality in mediation – between the collective and the individual, interiority and exteriority

The acknowledgment of the contrasts between the cases permits a comparison in the sense of theorizing and problematizing some critical aspects.

The question of neutrality in mediation, so often defended as one of its characteristic marks, can and should be problematized not only from the conceptual point of view (Caetano, 2005a) but also in the light of the studied cases.

To understand these cases we must consider them within their contexts and comprehend how they constitute important factors of the way neutrality is understood. The questions of institutional power, associated to a greater or lower level of the mediator’s insertion in the institution, constitute a considerable factor in this analysis. Both cases can, therefore, be understood as being next to opposite poles of a continuum between an institutional insertion and an institutional non-insertion of the mediator. Thus, in the case of the assemblies, the teacher, in spite of being his first year at school, has tenure. Besides this, the teacher assumes the functions of a class tutor which confer him specific powers and functions, underlying that status 3 Central service of the Portuguese Ministry of Education 17

(conferred by the Ministry of Education). This function confers him the role of the leader of the team of the teachers’ council and, at the same time, he has a mediating position between the school, the students and the family. This duplicity of roles introduces tension between, on the one hand, the class group, whom the teacher should give direct support, and on the other hand, the collective of teachers, who demands of the class teacher/director the responsibility of the management of the class’ problems, of citizenship education and of articulation with the families. This tension is managed by the teacher, who tries, in a recursive way, to manage the cooperation dynamics whether in class or in the collective at school, trying to widen the cooperation to the relations between the various teachers and the class itself. In a cooperation context the teacher is an acting part. That is the reason why he should always introduce his own perspectives, leaving them to the consideration of the collective. Faced with the students’ difficulty in decision-making, the teacher presents some proposals, which he puts under discussion and which he reformulates according to that same discussion. Thus, he cannot remain neutral, or in an exterior position, but without prejudicing his impartiality towards the parts in conflict.

In the case of social mediation, the mediator manages another fundamental tension – between the school and the community. But here is where the mediator is more alone, because, besides the fact that he represents school and helps to establish a communication net on the inside of school, there is no dynamic of collaboration through which everybody gets involved in processes of self-organization and self-regulation. Thus, the dynamics of interface with the community and with the students have no visible repercussions on extended dynamics in school. The same happens with the dynamics of the community which, besides the articulations, are not greatly transformed by this action. So, the task is done more on the interfaces and individualized relationships with the students, families and class tutors. The mediator dialogues with the school, but his institutional and professional insertion is precarious (notwithstanding, he represents the school at the community and the families). He dialogues with the community, but although he belongs to the same culture which facilitates the communication and his acceptance, he remains outside the community. The double position of exteriority and interiority in both fields may revert on behalf of a position of neutrality and impartiality. However, in the school context, and what refers to the relation between teachers and students, the mediator tends to defend the teachers position, trying to make the students’ recognize their errors. This position may be a result of his fragility of insertion in the school, which favours an alliance with this institution, without questioning it. On the other side, in the mediation with the community and the family, and besides his efforts of approach, his impartiality and active listening, which seem 18

Network 15 – Research Partnership in Education European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005 to facilitate a relationship at the same level with the community, the mediator falls, sometimes, in the logic of the dominant culture, using the social control devices which are at his disposal but escape his control. The issue of neutrality, in this mediation case, has to be re-analysed and reassessed. The fact that it constitutes an instrumental link which connects different systems, despite the inexistence of collaborative work structures in any of them, may help us understand its difficulty of positioning. Also, in the situations in which both conflicting parts have the same level of power (in the case of conflicts between the students), we observe difficulties in keeping the distance and neutrality (see the reported incident, for example). Assuming the position of the class tutor, the mediator centres his attention on one of the students and is not neutral because he analyses and deepens only the behaviour of that student and his family.

5. Final Reflection

The study followed in a first descriptive phase the model we proposed in the first part of the study (Caetano & Freire, 2004). Thus, we considered the contexts, models of conflict and mediation, the intervenients of mediation, the mediation processes and their effects in a systematic view that supports the comprehension of the structural and dynamical dimensions of the cases.

The problematization of the cases allowed us to go further in the comprehension of the complexity of the situations of mediation. There are some characteristics of the studies on complexity present in this lecture, like the comprehension of the dynamics inserted in their contexts; like the assumption of the unpredictability of the effects of mediation, like the focus on tensions and the more or less dialogical and recursive ways of how they are managed. The cases were analysed according to their complexity and were contrasted by their higher or lower level of complexity in several dimensions. Thus, it seems that in the case of social mediation, the top-down scheme, centred on individual educational agents (students, families and communities), did not fortify their power in the management of self-regulation of their problems, did not promote collective dynamics of school in the sense of a self-organization, nor did it favour conjugated dynamics of interaction between the school and the community, in the sense of an eco-organization. But it can be understood as aspects that disfavour a self-regulation and an institutional and inter-institutional transformation. On the other side, in the case of class assemblies and despite the difficulties in considering the school problems in a more ample social context, we observe a well succeeded attempt to involve the parents and the educational 19

Network 15 – Research Partnership in Education European Conference on Educational Research - Dublin – 7 –10 September 2005 community of school (namely the teachers and the school psychologist) in the resolution of some class problems. Thus, the class, besides constituting a self-organized collective that establishes self-regulation devices, for example the class assemblies, tries to integrate in a collective more ample than school, instituting conjugated processes of eco-self-organization. In this way, the transforming effects are potentiated, namely in the sense of the cooperation development, the socio-moral development of the students and the resolution of problems and conflicts. The principle of “hologramaticity”, according to which the whole is inscribed in each part, seems to manifest itself in the emerging forms of cooperation, of reciprocal support and of solidarity.

The tensional questions, comprehended and managed in their capacity for dialogue and recursivity between the dimensions of the individual and the collective, the internal and the external, seem, once again, to be better dealt with in the case of the class assemblies, what points, once again, to the greater complexity of this case.

Bibliographical References

Caetano, A.P. (2005a). Mediação em educação: da conceptualização e problematização de alguns lugares comuns à modelização de casos específicos. Revista de Estudos Curriculares. (no prelo)

Caetano, A.P. (2005b) La métaphore et l’implication du chercheur dans la construction de la connaissance. In E. Morin; M. Roux.Rouquie; J-L Le Moigne (orgs.). Actas do Colloque “Intelligence de la complexité: epistémologie et pragmatique”. Cerisy , www.mcxapc.org/docs/cerisy/a12-4.pdf

Caetano, A.P. & Freire, I. (2004). “Mediation in Education. A Collaborative Study Between the University and Practitioner-Researchers in the Field of Education”, European Conference on Educational Research online. www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00003798.htm Gergen, K. J. (1999). “Rumo a um Vocabulário do Diálogo Transformador”, in Schnitman, D. F. & Littlejohn, S. (orgs.), Novos Paradigmas em Mediação, Porto Alegre: ARTMED Editora, pp. 29-45.

Six, J-F. (1995). Dynamique de la médiacion. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer.

Goodlad, J. I. (1984). A Place Called School. Prospects for the Future. New York: McGraw- Hill Book Company.

Jares, X.R. (2002). Educação e conflito. Guia de educação para a convivência. Porto: ASA.

Schnitman, D. F. (1999). “Novos Paradigmas na Resolução de Conflitos”, in Schnitman, D. F. & Littlejohn, S. (orgs.), Novos Paradigmas em Mediação, Porto Alegre: ARTMED Editora, pp. 17-27.

Zabatel, E. C. (1999). “Mediación: Cambio Social o Más de lo Mismo?”, in Brandoni, F. (comp.), Mediación escolar. Propuestas, reflexiones y experiencias, Buenos Aires: Paidós, pp. 141-152.

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