Reconceptualizing conflict: An investigation of student teachers´understandings of conflict and conflict handling before and after mandatory training

Abstract: Aims: The goal of this study is to describe and analyze student teachers' conceptualizations of conflict and conflict handling before and after they participate in mandatory training. Special attention is given to the extent to which student teachers’ conceptualizations correspond with and diverge from theories about conflict and learning. The study seeks to make this correspondence visible so that they it may be employed as a pedagogical aid. The study also employs student teachers’ discussions of and reflections on their learning in order to identify strengths and weaknesses in the ways in which they have been educated to understand and handle conflicts. Theory: The study employs theoretical perspectives on conflict and development (Valsiner & Cairns, 1995); social interdependence theory (Johnson & Johnson, 2009); and the Ideal System of Conflict Resolution (Cohen, 2005) to investigate how educational actors can utilize conflicts to promote personal, social, and intellectual development. Method: Data was gathered and analyzed via a phenomenographic protocol complemented by case studies. Results: The study yielded an outcome space containing six conceptualizations of the roles that participants described teachers playing in school-based conflicts including arbitrating, asserting, informing, stimulating, guiding, and reflecting. Analysis of the changes in participants’ conceptualizations over time demonstrated that most participants abandoned the conceptualizations of arbitrating and asserting after completing the course. Additionally, the majority of participants portrayed more nuanced understandings of stimulating, guiding, and reflecting as constructive conflict handling strategies. Three case studies are also employed to analyze and present interview data. These cases highlight the ways in which student teachers’ backgrounds and approaches to conflict influenced their learning. The case studies depict a divergence between what was offered in the course and what participants felt they needed in order to develop practical skills. This discrepancy points to a number of ways in which mandatory conflict handling courses may be (re)designed to better address student teachers’ expectations and foster their learning.