Learning by Doing: The UK鈥檚 First Mediation Clinic Conference
By - Posted on 17 March 2021
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By the everyday miracle of Zoom, Carrie Menkel-Meadow spoke from her LA office to a Glasgow conference with a worldwide audience. Wrapping up 鈥楲earning by Doing,鈥� the UK鈥檚 first conference devoted to mediation clinics, described the inspiration for a whole career: a colleague in her legal aid office in the 1970s. While Carrie won cases that seemed to make little difference in practice, the other 鈥�picked up the phone and called directly 鈥� the social worker, the landlord, the employer 鈥� and just tried to work it out.鈥�
Carrie famously went on to write about . And when she started teaching mediation to law students, a clinic was essential: 鈥業t鈥檚 impossible to learn without doing it.鈥�
Learning by doing
Learning by doing is a phrase attributed to John Dewey, influential American educationalist and philosopher. Also described as experiential learning, his approach sought to shift the 鈥榗entre of gravity鈥� so that 鈥榟e [the learner] is at the centre鈥� (Dewey 1900, cited in Ord, J., 2012, . Youth & Policy, 108, 55鈥�72, 65.) He saw experience as a transaction between the person and their environment, a two-way process involving 鈥榯谤测颈苍驳鈥� and 鈥榰苍诲别谤驳辞颈苍驳.鈥� We act on the situation and the situation acts on us.
Few activities fit the bill better than mediation. Can you imagine learning it from a book? It would be dry as dust. We have to 鈥榯ry鈥� it. And when we do, we 鈥榰ndergo鈥� the experience of being a mediator in other people鈥檚 conflict. That affects our thinking, not just after the event but as soon as we open our mouths. This is real-time learning: Did that phrase land well? Is she responding to this question? When I interrupted their argument, did it improve the interaction?
When working as mediators, we have little choice but to answer these questions on the go. If one approach doesn鈥檛 work, we try another. If something clicks, we remember it for next time. Donald Sch枚n, echoing Dewey, characterised this as We can also think back on what took place: 鈥榬别蹿濒别肠迟颈苍驳&苍产蝉辫;on&苍产蝉辫;补肠迟颈辞苍鈥�.
Learning by talking
In my own I paid tribute to my early mentors. One experienced mediator had enough patience and fascination to chew over with me the tricky family disputes that came our way. Hours of teasing out what happened, what worked, and what spectacularly failed, deepened my understanding. They also helped build a repertoire of moves and interpretations, doubtless creating my 鈥榩ersonal schema鈥� of practice. Kenneth Kressel describes schemas as 鈥榣argely unconscious and highly personal ideas that mediators hold about the nature of conflict, the goals to be attained by intervention, and implicit intervention 鈥渟cripts鈥濃�� (, pp. 710/711).
These experiences highlight another important contribution of mediation clinics: they foster reflective practitioners. I benefited from being part of a community of practice where people more expert than me had the generosity to listen and share. I was also asked to reflect in writing after each case. And so, from the start, our clinic has asked student and lead mediators to complete review forms, which I read and comment on.
Communities of practice
The conference took place during a global pandemic. It was entirely virtual, hosted by University of 欧美高清 but open to anyone with Zoom. Our Chair, Patrick Scott, referenced Dickens: 鈥業t was the best of times, it was the worst of times.鈥� We all know the downsides of this moment, even if we鈥檙e lucky enough to be safe: no meeting and greeting; no chance conversations; too much staring at screens. And yet, being human, we also look for silver linings. And here鈥檚 one. The Zoom age has shrunk the planet. 120 people joined us from across the UK, India, Lebanon, Georgia, Kenya and Ireland, with a keynote from the US.
As well as learning by doing, we learn from one another. The conference acted as a mini 鈥榞athering-of-the-clans鈥� after months of lockdown and isolation. One of the workshops, facilitated by 欧美高清 volunteers, touched on the impact of Covid on mediation practice. Remote mediation has some upsides: convenience; comfort (of your own couch); accessibility; reduced anxiety; and a surprising ability to read people鈥檚 emotions on a small screen. But there are drawbacks: tech troubles; distractions (kids, pets); less investment in the process; 鈥榋oom fatigue,鈥� More poignant is the loss of 鈥榮paces in-between鈥�, those incidental encounters, like shared coffee and cakes, that humanise a face-to-face mediation.
We learned from experts. Two of the UK鈥檚 leading researchers into small claims mediation, , shared what their work has taught them. Both see the justice system making more use of mediation in future, particularly given other pressures on court time.
We learned from pioneers. told two distinctive stories of founding mediation clinics. Both underlined their educational logic 鈥� clinics put practical flesh on mediation鈥檚 theoretical bones.
We learned from . Heloise Murdoch (manager of Edinburgh Court Mediation Service), Patrick Scott (also a volunteer mediator) and Summary Sheriff Michael Hanlon (a judge responsible for referring cases to the Clinic) described the practicalities of working with the courts. Clinics can bring about system-wide change as they demonstrate, incrementally, the simple truth that people tend to like mediation better after they鈥檝e tried it than before.
And we learned from politics. Interviewed by Craig Cathcart, Margaret Mitchell MSP described the short hop from a politician鈥檚 encounters with day to day problems to promoting mediation legislation. Margaret鈥檚 seems likely to influence future Scottish governments with an eye to improving access to justice.
Learning and doing
Mediation clinics, then, should not be seen as an optional extra. 鈥楲earning without doing鈥� makes little sense. My first students told me so, prompting the founding of our clinic at 欧美高清. Role-plays and simulations take learners some of the way; but there is nothing quite like real-world conflict to raise the stakes and sharpen the senses. It鈥檚 not that our choices in simulations don鈥檛 matter. It鈥檚 just that they matter so much more when we鈥檙e working with real people.
The conference reminded us that learning and doing are inextricable. This is good news for universities, who constantly strive to make their 鈥榠vory tower鈥� knowledge useful to society. It鈥檚 also good news for mediators. It鈥檚 never dull because we鈥檝e never arrived. Even the most fiercely pragmatic have their theories, reasons for doing one thing rather than another reinforced by a career of trial and error. Learning by doing just never stops.