CONFLICT MEDIATION AND SCHOOL VIOLENCE: RESULTS OF INTERVENTION THROUGH A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

The present study purported to verify the effect on the perception of school violence after the implementation of a conflict mediation project. The training of school mediators was carried out through b-learning and the development of peer mediation sessions. A quasi-experiment was developed, comparing the mediation intervention of the group benefited (54 participants), with a second intervention through playful-pedagogical workshops about conflict resolution (57 participants), as well as with a control group where no intervention was performed (53 participants); all the participants belong to secondary school of an educational institution of Valledupar, Colombia. Student's t-test for related samples demonstrates a significant reduction in the perception of school violence only in the group where the school mediation process was developed. Likewise, it was found that mediation had differential effects on the dimensions of verbal violence between peers, physical violence and threat, social exclusion and disruption in the classroom. The relevance of the massive implementation of conflict mediation in local school scenarios is discussed, given the propensity to school violence related to social and structural violence, as well as the need to objectively evaluate the results of this type of intervention, aspects that are key in school counseling for the construction of peace and citizenship.