Mediation as a Leadership Strategy to Deal with Conflict in Schools

Abstract

The concept of mediation is a process that is frequently used in the labour field and is under-developed in a field such as education. Mediation as a strategy to resolve conflict in an amicable way has gained support in various other fields but seems not to be seen as a mainstream solution to resolving conflict in education. This article reports on a qualitative study whose aim was to explore how the South African school principals deal with religious interest conflicts in their schools. The study employed narrative interviews as a means of data collection. Stories of twelve school principals pursuing postgraduate studies at the University of Pretoria, all of whom had been in education for at least fifteen years at the time of the study, were collected, transcribed, analyzed and interpreted. The study revealed that none of the principals in the study saw mediation as a conducive strategy for conflict resolution, instead; they resisted and ignored the new religion policy. We therefore suggest that for effective implementation of new policies, certain strategies must be popularised within schools. We further recommend possible application of the concept of "mediation" as a leadership strategy in dealing with conflict in schools.