Mediação em contexto escolar: perspetivas sobre o seu uso em gestão de conflitos

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.5322405026

• Palavras-chave: mediação escolar; gestão de conflitos; necessidades de formação.

• Keywords: school mediation; conflict management; training needs.

• Abstract: The School, a community of coexistence on a reduced scale, has as its essential mission the appropriation and recreation of a certain culture, being committed to the development of social practices that facilitate a healthy coexistence. Given the heterogeneity of the school population, the emergence of conflicting situations in its space is natural. The aim of this work is to reflect on the contributions of Mediation in a school context to promote positive conflict management, characterize aspects of conflict at school, learn about the perspectives of school actors on reasons for dissent, skills and strategies useful for conflict management, and to see if there is convergence in the perspectives of these school actors. The study is of a narrative type. Data from thirteen semi-structured interviews, carried out with school actors who witnessed or experienced conflict situations, are treated through thematic content analysis. The results show that, from their perspective, the causes of conflict at school mainly concern issues originating in social networks and the transfer of problems from other contexts of life to the school space; the capabilities and competences recognized as useful for conflict management are those that can promote benefits for the conflicting parties; communication strategies are referred to by all stakeholders, with no mention of high difficulties in managing conflict situations; the main reason for the school to reinforce its support for conflict management lies in preventing and overcoming it. It is deduced the need to invest in training within the scope of school mediation.