ABSTRACT
Starting in early 2000, several articles have explored mediation in the Caribbean. However, for the most part, they were authored from theoretical perspectives, mediators’ views of mediation, and/or participants’ views of mediation training. When COVID-19 was declared a global public health pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health Organization, all segments of society were forced to pivot. As a result of this pivot, there is an urgent need to explore as well as memorialize the lived experiences of individuals who were engaged in conflict resolution activities as practitioners, trainers, researchers, and teachers of mediation courses and who were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of an existing gap in scholarship on the issue under inquiry in Trinidad and Tobago, this is a dedicated study of mediation practitioners, trainers, researchers, and teachers of mediation courses during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve the study’s goals, a qualitative, descriptive case study based on phenomenology was employed and data were collected from five faculty members employed at the Mediation Studies Unit of The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, and the data were used to answer six research questions. The results indicated several impacts, lessons learned, and benefits to the practice and teaching of mediation. Four themes which emerged from the data analysis include improved technological competency, adaptation, insufficiency of interactions, and lack of contemporary mediation training. The article concludes with a call for further empirical research on mediation in the Caribbean.