SURVEY REPORT
The survey conducted by the lifelong learning programme Leonardo da Vinci mobility project
„MeImp. Professional development of social educators by mediation“ (No. LLP-LdV-TOI-2013LT-0141).
Introduction
In today‘s changing society the school plays more important role in a life of child,
teenager and young person. The consequences of economic crisis, mobility and demographic
change, internet inclusion and digitization amount affect interpersonal relationships implying the
assumptions for the change of school.
The additional requirements are often made for schoolwhich“main activity is
education by the formal education primary, basic, secondary or special education programs“ 1. ”The
school is the second community of the child where the child comes after the family and socialize“
(Kvieskienė, G., 2013). It should be emphasized that the particular attention should be given to
learner‘s healthy psychosocial – emotional environment, open and trusting interdependent
relationships and inefficient management of inevitable conflicts.
Various researches of the scientists (Leliūgienė I., Kaušyliene, A., 2013; 2012; 2010;
Targamadzė, V., 2010 etc.) show that various conflicts dominate in the schools. They are usually
solved by social educator as the representative of the closest child‘s environment in the school.
The objective of the study is to analyse the mediation activities of social pedagogues
working in the secondary schools.
The methodology of the study: the quantitative research method was selected for the study
(questionnaire). The subject of the study is the activity of social pedagogues’ mediation.
In order to examine the opinion of social pedagogues working in the school of general
education on the need to develop the competence of mediator the empirical research was carried
out.The instrument of the research is the questionnaire consisting of 25 questions (see Annex 1).
The first ten questions were dedicated to determine the concept of conflict, its causes, frequency
and conflicting groups (between students, between pedagogues and students, between pedagogues,
1
Švietimo įstatymas, 2001.
between students and school personnel etc.). Eight other questions were dedicated to clarify the
concept of mediation and its need, the remaining questions – for demographic data.
Executive summary
After the opinions’ summarization, it can be said that:
1. The concept of conflict is most often described as fight, anger, violence,
disagreements, aggression, and miscommunication and sometimes it even associates
with fear.
2. They encounter students‘ disagreements, bullying and gossip in their daily activity.
Once of few times a month they encounter the disagreements between students and
teachers, harassment among students, difference of social classes, bullying among
students, harassment in the family, gossip, harassment between students and teachers
and domestic violence. The social pedagogues solve the conflicts related to
harassment and violence much less and interested parties (e.g. school administration,
child right protection services, psychologists etc.) are included in their decision.
3. The prevalence of conflicts in the school is quite high and social pedagogues devote
quite enough of their time to solve the conflicts: one-third of the respondents devote
4 and more hours a week to solve the conflicts, the other – a bit less. It is obvious
that quite a lot of working time is wasted for the solution of conflicts.
4. The most often conflicts arise between the students and sometimes – between
pedagogues and students. The most frequent causes of the conflicts between the
students are the following: the aim to become stronger and / or dominate (e.g. the
competition and the aims for leadership and attention), self-expression (clothing
style, views and religion) and feeling of antipathy. The causes of the conflicts
between the pedagogues and students are the following: disability of students (this
was said by more than three-quarters of respondents) and different orientation of the
students (this was said by more than one-third of respondents).
5. The attention should be paid to the expression of psychological violence in the
schools: almost all social pedagogues observe that conflicts of students are
evidenced as threats and scare, nicknaming, persecution in the social networks and
predisposing the others. More than half of student respondents observe the physical
violence(pushing and fight) in the conflicts.
6. Social pedagogues identify themselves as the main solvers of the conflicts: this was
the answer chosen by three-quarters of respondents. Class educators are involved in
the conflict resolution, but the other members of school community (school
administration, student parliament, school council) rarely help to solve the daily
conflicts.
7. When solving the conflict situations the compromise is usually found by the
pedagogues and students, while three-quarters of the three-quarters of the
respondents pointed out that the student seek to satisfy interdependent conflicts at
any price. The frequent conflicts between the students and pedagogues, as well as
conflicts in the families are not solved: they are avoided or the existing situation is
adapted.
8. Although the mediation is carried out during the resolution of conflicts, its need of
improvement is quite big (more than half of respondents agree to that). The preferred
topics of the training are the following: practice of mediation, case management and
training of complex situation management. It is indicated that students, their parents
and teachers should also participate in the trainings. The professional mediators
should carry out the mediation training as the professional development.
9. The majority of the respondents stated the need of mediation in the schools: to
organize the trainings of social pedagogues and teachers and create the system of
mediation.