Impact of School Leaders' Conflict Management Approach on the Teachers' Behavior and Classroom Performance: A Case Study in Brazil

• In Event: Leading, Learning, and Seeing: Global Perspectives on Education, Conflict, and Representation

Proposal

Conflict among teachers is a very common sight in most of the schools and some say that conflict is good for the growth of the school and conflict management strategies plays a significant role in all the school. There are many proven conflict management strategies in place for schools. In traditional schools, various conflict management strategies are popular, including negotiation, avoidance, compromise, collaboration, and forcing (Larasati et al., 2020). Conflict Resolution Strategy is a variety of approaches arrived at terminating conflicts using constructive ideas (Oboegbulem & Alfa, 2013). For example, in Ethiopia, researchers found that primary school leaders used discussions, punishment, force, compromise, avoidance, and ignorance to solve disputes (Shanka & Thuo, 2017). Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is another strategy that has gained popularity, which involves the use of third-party mediators to guide the conflict resolution process (Algert, 2020).
However, research that focuses on conflict management considering the student's holistic development is scarce in educational research. Therefore, this research focused on conflict management in a school with a unique mission to create citizens with common sense, wisdom, and the dawn of hope. The research questions that drove this study were:
• What approaches does the principal apply to manage conflicts in the school?
• How does the conflict management approach influence the teachers’ behavior and their classroom performance?
• How does the school values and principles influence the conflict management approaches?
To address these questions, I researched practices and methods that the ‘Instituto Educacional Soka do Brasil’ or ‘Soka Educational Institute of Brazil’ have been implementing including the administration’s conflict management approaches. Soka Educational Institute of Brazil is focused on the individual's holistic growth with a unique curriculum and teaching pedagogies. My research focused on the principal’s conflict management approach among staff members and investigates teachers' and the coordinator’s understanding of school culture and conflicts. I then compared these practices and methods with the global research that has been done on this specific field.
A total of 21 qualitative interviews with 19 teachers and two coordinators were conducted from August 5 to August 30 in 2024. The teachers were purposefully selected to reflect on the research topic. To gather insights on the approaches implemented by the principal to address concerns and potential conflicts, semi-structured interviews consisting of a minimum of ten questions for 30-60 minutes were conducted with teachers and coordinators. These qualitative interviews provided stories of lived experiences and meaning making and ensured an understanding of individual perspectives (Perry, 2020).
This study yielded three primary findings: 1). Leaders resolve conflicts among teachers mainly by interacting personally with all the members involved in conflict, also known as “(dialogue).” One of the participants replied, “She tried listen to us and dialogue to question of the impact of conflict management approaches on the teachers’ classroom performance and behavior. One of the respondents prioritized their work above everything else so the conflict management approach didn’t really affect their classroom performance.
“Whenever something happens, I can talk to A about it or somebody else about it and just solve it at the moment and for me I have a purpose, right? which is education and the happiness of my students, so I always put this first, so nothing seems to affect me because of that”
3.The school’s principles and values played a vital role in shaping the conflict management approach. The finding suggested that it is important for the schools to have principles, values and vision. When asked if the school’s mission and values have an important role to play in the coordinator’s conflict management approach, one of the respondents answered,
“Yes, here we think that the Soka Education is based on dialogue and respect other person, and we try to put these values in practice but sometimes it is not possible because we are busy and work a lot and couldn’t put in practice.”
This paper will assist educators working in schools which have similar goals, mission and vision, to encourage the use of dialogue in their own practices. Additionally, this research contributes to the literature on conflict management approaches and types of conflicts that arise among teachers and between teacher and principal. Finally, I believe this study can contribute to the further studies on the correlation between the conflict management approach and the school’s values and principles.
 
References
Algert, N. T. (2020). Conflict Management and Leadership Development using Mediation. Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Blendinger, J. G. Shadowing Principals: Preparing Wannabe School Administrators. SRCEA, 17, p. 17-28
Larasati, R., & Raharja, S. (2020, February). Conflict Management in Improving Schools Effectiveness. In 3rd International Conference on Learning Innovation and Quality Education (ICLIQE 2019) (pp. 191-197). Atlantis Press.
Oboegbulem, A., & Alfa, I. A. (2013). Conflict Resolution Strategies in Non-Government Secondary Schools in Benue State, Nigeria. Online Submission, 3(2), 91-102.
Perry, A., & Bigelow, M. G. (2020). The therapeutic nature of qualitative interviewing: benefits of research participation. Journal of Research Initiatives, 5(2), Article 2.
Shanka, E. B., & Thuo, M. (2017). Conflict Management and Resolution Strategies between Teachers and School Leaders in Primary Schools of Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia. Journal of Education and Practice, 8(4), 63-74.

Author

• Shanker​ Pudasaini