Conceptual map of Conflict Mediation in school context: literature review with webQDA®

Abstract

The topics on which this article deals contribute to identify how conflict, coexistence and school mediation are elements of study in the field of Educational Sciences.

In the 70s in the United States and in the 80s in Europe (Cunha & Monteiro, 2019), in to what extent the current School can be built as a space to implement intervention strategies to improve their social and educational context, one can find the first conflict mediation projects. In Portugal, they date back to the year 2000 (Ferreira, 2002).

The school mediation devices are pointed out as good practice, according to the confirmed results, by foreign studies which have determined the research agenda, and in the national context, in Masters and PHD studies, simultaneously with some scientific articles. From a literature review for another study (Pinto da Costa, 2016), one determined that the contribution to list advantages and virtues of school mediation outnumber those which share typologies and results of methodologies of intervention, research or evaluation. One also determined that the research on the topic has been increasing. In the path of the statement of Torremorell (2002), contributions are required to convince the scientific community and the school of the utility of this kind of projects.

The argumentative strategy woven throughout the study was based on a qualitative research methodology, based on a literature review of the areas in question, which contributed to the construction and analysis of categories, concepts and theories that support what has been produced in the research board in the last decade about conflicts, mediation and interaction at school, as one envisions a triad of cause-action-consequence associated with school mediation as a methodology of social innovation.