Peer support programs to improve convivencia.

I. Fernández García

Redes-cepalcala.

Spanish

English

Bullying, school violence, convivencia, peer support, mediation.

Report

Teachers, Researchers, School Directors, School psychologist.

1 - 20 pages

The coexistence in the school centers has a fundamental paper for the good operation of the same. This one implies to the set of the school, in which the students have a great role, like the professors, and that the climate and the school culture tie directly with, that is to say, the values, traditions and beliefs that each school wants to maintain. In the last decade, they have arisen an important number of programs and models of regulation of the coexistence, which are mentioned in this report. The peer support systems of are programs of educative innovation, which are based on the idea that the equals are a source of knowledge and active members of the educative community, able to impel action of social and moral development in their schools. This report concentrates in the systems of aid between equals more sophisticated, that is to say, those that suppose a preparation and a previous formation as much the teaching staff as for the pupils. In this sense, it considers the proposals of mediation, student-assistants, commissions of coexistence within the classrooms and position of a guardian between pairs. Both first (and more outstanding systems) they share the approach of the constructive resolution of the conflicts based on the negotiation and the restoration of the relation; nevertheless, its organization and insertion in the centers considers of different way, which is detailed in the report. Like example of the models based on the peer support systems, this document makes reference and briefly describes the structure that an educative center of Madrid has developed after almost ten years. Finally, it emphasizes the evaluation of these programs like one of the tasks most important and difficult to realise.

The systems of aid between equals have grown in popularity in the last years and, at present, widely they are used in Spain like intervention to fight the school violence and the social exclusion, besides promoting a well-being and an emotional adjustment between the students of all the educative levels. This report has been chosen because it offers a general vision and it makes a description of the peer support systems, which comprise of the models based on the coexistence. These programs suppose an effective preventive measure and a source of support for the victims of bullying, besides being very positive to work the paper who play the spectators in this kind of problems. Normally, they help to improve the coexistence generally and generate more opportunities of listening and dialogue of the conflicts, which brings a clear reduction in the level of intensity and the negative impact of the same, avoiding that derive in more serious cases. In addition, they promote social abilities and moral principles morals when approaching the conflicts that are assimilated and incorporated in the personal repertoire of the users. Really, these programs suppose an effective tool for the resolution of the conflicts of pacific form and for the prevention of the school violence.

http://www.redes-cepalcala.org/inspector/DOCUMENTOS%20Y%20LIBROS/DERECHOS-DEBERES-CONVIVENCIA/PROGRAMAS%20AYUDA%20MEJORA%20CONVIVENCIA.pdf

University of Seville