Resolving Conflicts Between Young People

Abstract

This article is concerned with the way adults attempt to help young people resolve their conflicts in school. After some consideration of the growing interest in Mediation schemes the authors describe their survey of a large number of pastoral staff in local secondary schools. This survey sets out to investigate the extent of their involvement in attempting to resolve conflict between young people, the source of such conflict and the practical strategies employed. The article goes on to identify, within the range of strategies, a limited number of themes ('Styles') around which the authors construct a three part model of conflict intervention, which is intended to give practitioners greater insight into their own preferred methods and enable them access to a broader range of options.