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Four weeks' successful courses in therapeutic mediation Sucessful courses occurred at University of Uppsala, Sweden. They were a part of a 4-year regular Study programme called "Human Resource Development and Labour Relations". ("Program för personal- och arbetslivsfrågor, 160 p.") The Department of Education administers it but it recruits students from all faculties all over the country. All students are registerered at the University of Uppsala but some of them have previously studied also at other Swedish universities. My course is placed in the second year and was labelled "Mediation in conflicts including adult bullying at place of work". (7,5 ECTS) ("Medling vid konflikter på arbetsplatsen inklusive vuxenmobbning 5 poäng"). It had 4 weeks' duration and consists in 11 seminars, 3 hours each, and in exams containing questions on 900 pages of literature and one central point: the role-plays of mediation according to the Shared Concern method. |
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This course was one of the 12 alternative 4-week courses
the 40 students of the year could choose between. The first time
the course was offered, spring term 2000, seven students chose the course.
The second time it was offered, fall 2000, 19 of 40 preferred the course
instead of many other attractive courses.
In both courses we could fulfil the phases and steps I have described with exception of making role-plays of the students’ own stories. We used the mediation story I had chosen from my experience as mediator. The conflict dealt about the boss of a department of a big institution being bullied (or allegedly been bullied) by her employees.
A picture from the course in Uppsala in November 2000.
Examining questions after a University course in theapeutic mediation was perceived as natural by the students. I got satisfying answers to my question put in several formulations: "If you come into a position of a mediator what would you do?" The students expressed their satisfaction with the course in several written and oral appreciations. I myself consider the most important validation to be a successful application of the devices the participants learned. However, as the students have two years' additional studies before they can apply for jobs in personnel administration, I have not such full proofs. But many of the students and I agreed to keep contact in future and to change ideas of conflict resolution and developments in our society. As I am retired I decided not to give any more courses at my home university. Instead, I will meet the challenge of achieving the same success in foreign countries with shorter courses prepared by Internet. The usual University students' reading of books of various authors on conflict resolution, (including two books of myself) should be replaced by reading my home-pages in English dealing with the same topic. |
