Peer Mediation [Paperback]

Judith M. Ferrara (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...engaging, thoughtful, and compelling. Writing from the viewpoint of a participant observe, invested educator Ferrara tells how mediators in one pre-K through fifth grade school "answered the culture of violence and mistrust around them with an enduring and remarkable sense of community." No quick fixes are provided; Ferrara emphasizes the importance of thorough research and careful consideration of both school and community cultures, and of "high-quality preparation that meets recommended standards," before implementing a mediation program. Her step-by-step guide to understanding and developing a mediation program is applicable to all grade levels and community settings. Potential problem areas are acknowledged and addressed, and a wealth of resources are provided.

Take steps toward world peace; put Peer mediation on your library shelves today. -- Voice of Youth Advocates, February 1997

Peer mediation: Finding a Way to Care provides valuable insight about peer mediation through Ferrara's eyes of experience and the voices of Hampton's children. The text is an important addition to the library of a peer mediation coordinator who wants to explore and appreciate the "client focused" aspects of the program. -- Communication Education, Vol. 47, January 1998

From the Back Cover

For more than ten years peer mediation programs have been springing up in schools. Although they are begun with the highest hopes and best intentions, many programs falter in their second or third year, then disappear. What makes a program effective enough to endure year after year and become part of a school's culture?

Peer Mediation is the story of how one successful program started in an urban elementary school-how it was designed, implemented, and maintained. Teacher and mediator Judith Ferrara explains mediation, what it means to start up a program, watch it grow, change, and endure. At the heart of this book are the voices of the students who volunteered to become peer mediators, learned to understand the mediation process, and worked to help shape the program. Their thoughts and reactions to the peer mediation program, their tenacity, and, above all, their ethic of caring will leave a strong impression. Peer Mediation demonstrates the need to listen to students, observe their responses to the program, and work with them to revise it in order to maintain it.

Peer Mediation includes:

- strategies that may be used to implement and maintain a peer mediation program;
- vignettes in each chapter selected and interpreted to demonstrate what it can mean to adults and students who are part of a peer mediation program;
- suggestions for handling the problems that arise and changes that occur when peer mediation programs "start up";
- forms, checklists, and standards for preparing and assessing peer mediation programs;
- an annotated bibliography of mediation theory and practice, conflict resolution curriculum, and program materials.

Because Peer Mediation follows one program from implementation through its third year, it will be a useful resource for guidance counselors, teachers, and administrators who wish to start up a program, or gain insight into how to maintain an existing one.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Stenhouse Publishers (January 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571100210
• ISBN-13: 978-1571100214
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,134,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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