Stepping back through the looking glass: Real conversations with real disputants about institutionalized mediation and its value.

Seventy interviews were conducted with parents and school district officials involved in 14 of the 17 cases scheduled to be mediated by Pennsylvania Special Education Mediation Services in November and December 2000. Pre- and post mediation interviews were conducted with both parent and school official for 12 cases. Follow up interviews were conducted 18 months later with 10 of the 12 cases. Themes derived from the qualitative data of both parents and school officials include the importance of a dignified, thorough, and fair process (although parents and officials had different reasons for this); importance of progressing towards resolution in mediation; and that mediator interventions should adhere to procedural justice and resolution whether the interventions were facilitative, evaluative, or transformative. Author discusses implications for special education mediation practice and design of mediation procedures to ensure the balance of power within its structures and more broadly, implications for the field of mediation.