Conflict Mediation Workshop

Code:

E417

Acronym:

OMF

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Social Pedagogy

Instance: 2020/2021 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Education Sciences
Course/CS Responsible:	First degree in Educational Sciences

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
LCED	40	Official Curricular Structure	2	-	6	57	162

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

Objectives:
 this curricular unit aims at providing students an a wide understanding of conflict and its management, with an emphasis on mediation processes. It also aims at identifying and discussing potentialities and limitations of mediation as an instrument for managing social change and social conflicts, especially in educational contexts. 
In addition to specific knowledge from the field of conflict management, the fields of philosophy, psychology, sociology and history are also mobilized.
As indicated by its name, this curricular unit is strongly oriented to training skills in negotiation and mediation (mediation is understood here as a type of assisted negotiation, the mediator acting as an independent third party). Its syllabus seeks to incorporate this practical dimension. Thus, the first classes (where the first 3 items of the syllabus are developed) deal with historical and philosophical issues and conceptual problems related with transformations in the definitions of conflict and justice. Later, and progressively, the syllabus acquires a more operational nature. It is this part of the syllabus that occupies most of the scheduled classes (about 75% of them), in an attempt to make it coherent with the very operational objectives that have been defined for this curricular unit.

Learning outcomes and competences

Students are expected:

1) to identify the nature of conflicts;
2) to comprehend the historical transformations in the ways of making sense of, approaching and resolving conflicts;
3) to handle fundamental distributive and integrative negotiation strategies;

4) to conduct of mediation processes;

5) to articulate the ability to intervene in conflicts with a deep understanding of the polysemy of the term 'justice';
6) to plan mediation activities in socioeducational contexts. 

7) to plan and implement socioeducational intervention projects based on mediation approaches.
In brief, this curricular unit is oriented to developing the ability to diagnose and intervene in conflict resolution and in managing change in education/training.

Working method

À distância

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

Not applicable

Program

1) Historical transformations in the ways of understanding and approaching conflict: the decline of violence and the softening of the mores;
2) What is justice and how it different understanding of justice articulate with conflict management strategies;
3) Types of conflict;
4) The nature of mediation as a conflict resolution method;

5) Negotiation: fundamental concepts and techniques;
6) The mediator's role: ethical and technical elements;

7) The mediation process: the different stages of mediation, from the spatial organisation of the office and the initial data collection to the production of an agreement between the conflicting parties, through to building a cooperative relationship based on trust, identifying the parties’ interests and creating and assessing options for solving the conflict at stake.
8) Mediation in educational contexts: a discussion.

Mandatory literature

Steven Pinker; The better angels of our nature: a history of violence and humanity, Penguin, 2012
Michael Sandel; Justiça, Editorial Presença, 2011
Moore, Christopher; The Mediation Process – practical strategies for resolving conflict. , San Francisco: Jossey-Bass., 2003
Fisher, Roger; Ury, William e Patton, Bruce ; Como Conduzir uma Negociação?, Porto: Edições ASA. , s/d
Brown, Jennifer Gerarda; Empowering students to create and claim value through the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, Negotiation Journal, 28(1), pp. 79-91., 2012
Neves Tiago; Gestão de conflitos. ISBN: 978-989-730-012-7
Mayer, Bernard; The Dynamics of Conflict Resolution. , San Francisco: Jossey-Bass., 2000

Complementary Bibliography

Elias Norbert; O^processo civilizacional. ISBN: 972-20-0681-9 (Vol.1)
Lewicki, Roy. J; Saunders, David M.; Barry, Bruce; Negotiation, Boston: McGrawHill. 5ª edição., 2006
Loode, Serge ; Navigating the uncharted waters of cross-cultural conflict resolution education., Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 29(1), pp. 65-84. , 2011
Torremorell, Maria Carme ; Cultura de Mediação e Mudança Social. , Porto: Porto Editora., 2008
Cunha, Pedro ; Conflito e Negociação., Porto: Asa Editores. , 2001
Raiffa, Howard; The Art and Science of Negotiation., Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press., 2003
Neves, Tiago ; Practice note: community mediation as social intervention., Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 26(4), 481-495., 2009

Comments from the literature

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Teaching methods and learning activities

1) Lectures (22 hours): while present throughout the semester, it is used mostly in the first classes;
2) Role-plays (22 hours): role-plays are a fundamental teaching methodology in a curricular unit with a “workshop” nature. Throughout the semester, many role-plays are enacted both on negotiation (distributive and integrative) and mediation. This is crucial not only for training skills, but also for actually grasping the topics.
3) Debate (8 hours): used both in the discussion of the historical and philosophical issues and the conceptual problems related with transformations in the definitions of conflict and justice, as well as in the analysis of all role-plays in the curricular unit
4) Evaluation (5 hours): distributed, composed of two parts: a knowledge assessment test (70%), in which students are also required – in accord with the reflexive nature of the workshops – to produce a personal reflection about their learning process; and designing (30%) a simulation activity (the parameters of which are provided by the teacher). 

Given the relevance of the practical component in this curricular unit, oriented to training skills in negotiation and mediation, role-plays and their respective analysis play a major role here. After the third or fourth class, there are role-plays scheduled for every class. These practical exercises are always accompanied by collective analysis (group debate). Therefore, the curricular unit seeks to conciliate the development of the students’ technical/operational skills with the promotion of their critical and reflexive abilities. In order to do so, it mobilizes both acquired theoretical knowledge and the personal experiences resulting from participation in the role-plays. This curricular unit, together with those on Social Mediation and Educational Work and SIMF 5 and 6, is oriented towards the development of the capacity to diagnose and intervene in problems in education/training, namely as socioeducational mediators.

NOTE: As it is not possible to carry out the activities described above, which involve the participation and interaction of the students and the teacher in person, due to the changes resulting from the interruption of the face-to-face classes due to the pandemic situation by COVID 19, we proceed and will continue to proceed with the replacement of them by other modalities of distance teaching-learning, such as conducting study and guided work based on readings and visualization of recommended materials, as well as the availability of classes at PANOPTO and reinforcement of personalized tutorial assistance, via email, Skype, WhatsApp, SMS and / or voice call.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Trabalho escrito	70,00
Trabalho prático ou de projeto	30,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Elaboração de projeto	3,00
Estudo autónomo	102,00
Frequência das aulas	57,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

Presence in classes will be verified. Except in the cases described in the regulations, students missing more than 25% of the classes will not be admitted to exams.

Calculation formula of final grade

Written work (30%): designing a conflict mediation simulation. To be done individually, in class, towards the end of the semester. Design parameters to be supplied by the teacher. To be done individually. 

Exam (70%), composed of 3 parts: multiple choice questions; personal reflection on the curricular unit; questions about two of the compulsory reading texts. To be done individually.

Fraud situations will be dealt with in accordance to article 14 of the Student Evaluation Regulation of FPCEUP.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Special Evaluation Students who, in accordance with the lay, may be absent from classes will have to go through an additional evaluation procedure. Students in this situation need to get in touch with the teaching staff in the first 2 weeks of the course in order to make arrangements regarding that evaluation procedure. Improving scores

Classification improvement

Only once, in the scheduled period, via exam.

Observations

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CU was taught online from the beginning of the semester until April 19.