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evaluating the positions, attitudes, options, the problems
impeding or helping the mediation; carefully evaluating the
situation as it unfolds. [32/M/B/L]
In contrast, the other respondent defined evaluative in more relational terms
saying that it:
enabled the parties to be self aware, to be aware of perceptions
and feelings of others, to look at common goals, to make
choices based on all factors. [300/M/C/L]
Continuing with this line of inquiry, a similar comparison with the
facilitative orientation was carried out. This approach to mediation practice,
according to Riskin (1996), is one where the mediator helps parties

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understand and define the problems they wish to address as well as facilitate
a discussion of underlying interests rather than positions. Contrasting this
definition with the ones respondents gave below also displays an overlapping
of terms but divergence in meaning. Even with just a cursory look, five
different conceptions of the facilitative orientation are apparent – education,
settlement, communication, process and self-determination. One respondent
accentuated the educational function of the facilitative orientation this way,
[it] starts from the assumption that there is no cookie cutter
model that can be superimposed on conflict; it is a field of
counseling, no two clients are alike. Teaching mediation as a
flexible and educational experience would seek the disputants
input in process design, allow the disputants to educate the
intervenor and each other about their perspectives, and about
ways they can effectively communicate to address issues of
significance to them. [143/F/W/SS]
In another case, the facilitative orientation meant creating the opportunity to
reach settlement:
the role of the mediator is to provide opportunities for the parties
to negotiate their own settlement. [40/F/W/SS]
In this next example of what the facilitative orientation means emphasis is
placed on communication:
I facilitate communication and facilitate each party changing
how they see the problem. [57/F/C/SS]
For many respondents, the facilitative orientation found meaning in
overseeing the process of mediation. To cite one respondent,
[I] guide the process, deal with what comes up around the table,
do what's necessary to move on, where movement is frustrated
[I] find out why, caucus. [209/F/F/SS]

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And finally, as an example of understanding the facilitator role as self-
determining one respondent said,
[I] create an environment -- physically and through questions
which permit parties to be aware of their own needs to arrive at
their own solution. [144/M/C/L]
As further evidence of the insight that the terms used by today’s
mediators do not always have the same meaning, I looked at the definitions
for the transformative orientation given by respondents. Bush and Folger’s
(1994) definition of transformative mediation is one of the more recent and
contested found in the literature. In their view, transformative mediation
requires that participants in mediation be empowered to resolve their dispute,
and be able to recognize what the other party is going through. While some
respondents in this study did have similar understandings to those of Bush
and Folger, others offered different meanings for the word transformative as
evidenced in the following. Some respondents defined transformative as
having the potential to change institutional structures; this understanding
correlates with understandings of early mediation proponents (Wahrhaftig,
1982; Shonholtz, 1984). The following is a good example of this
understanding:
[Transformative mediation provides] the opportunity to transform