Dialogic Approach to Conflict Resolution for the Prevention of Gender Violence in Schools

• In Event: Preventive Socialization Against Violence Against Women in Schools

Abstract

1. Objectives
This paper presents a new approach to prevent and respond to gender violence in schools grounded in prior evidences of the dialogic approach success to conflict resolution, through the data of the Spanish research project Prevention of gender violence in the educational context from new school organizations (Valls, 2005) funded by the Catalan Women’s Institute. This approach implies involving all educational agents in the design and actions to prevent and detect gender violence.

2. Theoretical framework
There is an increase claim for dialogue in social relations in which all individuals of the community enter a dialogue aimed at achieving consensus regarding the best solution to the conflicts (Oliver, Soler and Flecha, 2009). Schools employing the community model provide the necessary conditions for all, relatives, teachers, students and neighbors to have equal opportunities for participation in problem solving and conflict resolution (Aubert, Duque, Fisas & Valls, 2004, p.69). In comparison to other approaches, the dialogic one seeks the replacement of power claims for validity claims (Habermas, 1987; Flecha & García, 2007) and emphasizes the importance of including all voices in order to raise the effectiveness of interventions. Despite the appropriateness of the dialogic approach for solving violence in schools, it has been rarely applied to the case of gender violence prevention.

3. Methods and data sources
Qualitative data from students, teachers and families in primary schools were collected. 9 communicative focus groups were conducted: 3 with students, 3 with teachers and 3 with families from a total of 5 primary schools.

4. Results
The results of the project highlight that:
1) The dialogic approach is effective for the prevention of gender-based violence in schools because it implies including voices that had been traditionally ignored by expert women in schools. These voices, for example are women from cultural and ethnic minorities, without academic background, and who are not education professionals, often imply new sights on this problem. When their views are taken into account in schools, and used as ground for the development of plans to fight gender violence from education, the results are promising.
2) Schools that follow the Learning Communities model apply the dialogic approach to gender violence prevention in schools and have proved to achieve positive results in the improvement of gender relations, coexistence, and peace.

5. Significance
Usually, addressing gender violence in schools implies experts deciding which actions to apply but ignoring the opinions of relatives and students. When the dialogic approach is applied to the case of gender violence it implies a number of benefits: greater identification of potential gender violence cases, new and more effective solutions for everyone, and a more inclusive and multicultural approach to the prevention of gender-based violence in schools.

Authors

• Carme Garcia Yeste, Universitat Rovira i Virgili

• Beatriz Carballido Villarejo, Universitat de Barcelona