Good General Purpose
Mediation Training Manuals

As the field of mediation grows, the amount of training materials available grows as well. While most materials are not designed to address campus conflicts, there is now a new trainers manual available that focuses specifically on campus mediation.

• Mastering Mediation: A Guide for Training Mediators in a College and University Setting by Rick Olshak. (2001) This mediation skills training manual, written by a former president of the Association for Student Judicial Affairs, is presented as a binder with removable pages. It is designed to give you all the elements you need to construct 4 training tracks focused on the campus environment: basic, advanced, combined and an isolated in-service training. Participants gain an understanding of the mediation process and the skills involved. (540 pp.)
  Publisher: Alexandria, VA: LRP Publications (for ASJA) Can be obtained from: http://www.lrpd.com

In addition, there are three more general purpose and commercially available training manuals (including one Mennonite, and one Quaker) that I have found particularly rich in terms of ideas that you may wish to consider, either as a personal reference tool, or for use as a main text in your training. These are noted below.

• The Mennonite Conciliation Service Mediation and Facilitation Training Manual (4th Edition) is chock-full of good ideas, and includes an extensive set of materials on facilitation as well as mediation. Note that it does include spiritual aspects of conflict resolution as well due to its Mennonite roots.
  


• The Friends Conflict Resolution Programs' The Mediator's Handbook (3rd Edition) presents a visually pleasing and well refined (in use since 1982) manual. Some brief excerpts are provided for your review at the online site.
  


• Mediation: Empowerment in Conflict Management (2nd Edition) by Domenici and Littlejohn.
  This Waveland Press text’s brevity, clarity, and directness make it appropriate for use in college classes and community training programs. It can be adapted to any number of training approaches. This concise volume is guided by a clear set of theoretical principles that provide an ideal for mediation in our society. Power issues are emphasized as a focal point in identifying and understanding the process. Mediation is explored as a dispute resolution option that allows conflict to be an opportunity. Special emphasis is given to the use of effective communication in mediation.
  

You may also wish to consult another nice mediation training manual that has been generously posted online by Jennifer Maxwell from the Kent State University Center for Applied Conflict Management.

In terms of more academic books on the mediation process, Christopher Moore's The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict 2nd Edition, Jossey-Bass, 1996 is perhaps the most complete and broad-reaching. While presenting information overload if used in most basic mediation trainings, Moore's book is a good volume for academic courses exploring mediation in more detail. See The Mediation Process by Christopher Moore (Jossey-Bass Publications)