Conflict Management Strategies of Principals in Resolving Students’ Conflict in Secondary School in Port Harcourt Metropolis

Abstract

The study investigated the conflict management strategies of principals in resolving students’ conflict in secondary schools in Port Harcourt metropolis. The descriptive survey design was employed in the study. Two research question and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A population of five hundred and sixteen (516) principals in public secondary schools in Port Harcourt metropolis were used for the study. The sampling techniques that were used were the fluid survey sample size method, simple random and stratified random sample techniques. The sample size of three hundred and twenty principals were drawn from the population of the study. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire titled: Principal Conflict Management Strategies (PCMS). The statistical mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while the Independent t-test at 0.05 level of significance was used to test the hypotheses. The result showed that conflict management strategies of principals in resolving students’ conflict in secondary schools in Port Harcourt metropolis thus: The gender respondents did not matter as most of the handling strategies of students’ conflict hinged on contingencies and nature of conflict. Educational qualification of the principals in handling students’ conflicts did not play a major role since most of the respondents did not matter as most of the handling students’ conflict. The researcher recommended that principals should adopt the most optimal approach in handling students’ conflicts in order to forestall occurrences. Also, principals should from time to time he given a forum to share their experiences of how they handle conflicts of their teenagers or how such experiences bear in their handling of conflicts in their various schools.