Keeping school violence in check

Students perform role-playing to learn how to engage in peer mediation at Dongbaek High School in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, in October 2013. / Courtesy of the Korea Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Center

Peer mediation fosters trust and mutual respect in students

The cover of “Peer Mediation”

By Chung Hyun-chae

Teachers and arbitration experts have called on middle and high schools to adopt peer mediation to encourage students to resolve conflicts on their own and reduce school violence.

“Students can peacefully resolve conflicts with their peers on their own by understanding the fundamental causes of the problems,” Kang Bo-seon, social studies teacher at Seowon High School in Yongin, south of Seoul, told The Korea Times in an interview.

“Peer mediators can help prevent the repetition of the same kind of conflicts between the same persons,” she added.

Kang is a member of the Korea Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Center in Yeongdeungpo, southern Seoul, which provides various conflict resolution programs.

Kang Bo-seon

Ko Myong-sook

Lee Hee-jin

Chang Sun-gyul

She introduced a peer mediation program to Dongbaek High School in Yongin in 2012, before moving to Seowon.

All schools throughout the country are required to set up and operate a committee that deals with and prevents school violence. The committee investigates any instance of school violence and takes disciplinary action against the perpetrators.

According to data released by the Ministry of Education, the number of school violence committee meetings held in middle and high schools across the nation fell from 24,709 in 2012 to 17,749 in 2013.

“The drop was partly attributable to more students going through the peer mediation process without referring their cases to the committee,” Kang said.

Chang Sun-gyul, another member of the center and an art teacher at Chungshin Girls’ Middle School in Songpa, southern Seoul, also stressed the effectiveness of the program in resolving conflicts among students.

“The program helps students develop empathy for their peers, and that empathy helps them solve their problems on their own peacefully without having their teachers intervene,” Chang said.

Kang and three other education experts coauthored a book, “Peer Mediation,” to provide information on what peer mediation is and how to effectively utilize it.

The book, published in February, was written by authors including ADR Center member and former English teacher Ko Myong-sook, Bongwon Middle School English teacher Kim Ji-ye and center director Lee Hee-jin. In it, they explain how schools can run peer mediation programs effectively.

“Taking disciplinary measures against perpetrators of school violence cannot fundamentally solve the problem and does not help victims either,” Ko said.

She pointed out that a dispute between students, which could evolve into school violence, arises from miscommunication and misunderstanding.

“Peer mediation offers opportunities for students to develop their communication and negotiation skills,” she said.

She noted that a trained peer mediator is required to listen to both parties in a conflict and arbitrate between them while keeping a neutral stance.

In 2012, 79 middle and high schools implemented the peer mediation program on a trial basis with financial support from the Ministry of Education. The number of schools in the program increased to 169 in 2013. However, the program has since come to a standstill because the ministry stopped providing financial support.

“Although we stopped providing the support, we have made it mandatory for schools to keep peer mediation-related activities in the students’ school records, which we believe may encourage the schools to adopt the peer mediation program,” a ministry official told The Korea Times.

However, the authors said long-term support from the government is required for successful implementation of the program. “More financial support is needed to get the program back on track,” Lee said.

While she acknowledged that peer mediation is not a perfect system that will solve all problems, she is confident that it will help students learn how to trust and respect each other so that they can develop better relationships, practice democratic values and gain a sense of community.

Kang stressed that it takes a long time, at least one semester, to train students to become good peer mediators.

“Peer mediators need to meet some important qualifications. For example, they should treat every case with confidentiality to protect the privacy of students involved in conflicts,” Kang said. “It usually requires considerable time and effort for students to become qualified peer mediators.”

Last year, the ADR Center helped six elementary and high schools, including Seoul Jongam Elementary School and Sangmoon High School in Seoul, train students to be peer mediators in an effort to revitalize the program.

Kim Ju-il, representative of the center, said that the peer mediation program can also contribute to resolving various social conflicts in addition to school conflicts.

“I believe students who learn how to listen to others will be able to better understand them and help them solve their conflicts, and this will help create a healthier and better society in the future,” Kim said.