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Question 4: What might a similar study reveal if it were to use other
internal and external contextual factors?
Recall that this investigation of the links between differences in
understandings and contextual factors focused on only four contextual
factors. Also that considerable evidence was found in this study to suggest
that differences in conceptualization of mediation are linked to contextual
factors. The extant literature also supports the connections between
differences in conflict behavior and contextual factors. Both of these
encourage us to do further exploration in this area. Taylor and Beinstein
Miller (1994) suggest that differences in conflict behavior may be better
explained by power, status and expertise factors than by gender. The
relationship between conflict and culture, where culture refers to a range of
differences based on age, gender, socioeconomic status, national origin,
recency of immigration, education, sexual orientation, and disability, will be
important to consider in future studies. Mediation as a dispute resolution
process is already labeled to reflect only individualistic, low-context, modern
society. Study is needed to assess the advantages and limitations of different
understandings of, and approaches to, mediation in culturally sensitive
circumstances.
Linked to the question of context, it would be useful in a future study to
examine the training mediators receive. Were they trained in an academic
setting or a professional program? Who trained them? What was the

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trainer’s educational background? What was included in the course content?
What ideological viewpoint was stressed? What model of mediation practice?
The questions could go on. Professional education and training provides
more than facts and techniques. Students come to have particular ways of
thinking about themselves and their profession, they learn values and
attitudes towards the work that result in differing conceptions of the
practitioner role (McFarlane, 1961). Thus, much could be learned about
mediation and its stage of development by examining the training of its
workers.