Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts through Collaboration - an Alternative Way to Facilitate the Social Integration of Students in Primary School

Abstract

From the first years of school, as teachers, we notice that the students’ well-being in class depends not only on the educational progress, the school success or the high scores they get sometimes. We are becoming increasingly aware that a student's motivation to continue to attend school and to participate with high interest is strongly influenced by the interpersonal relationships he or she builds with co-elder colleagues. The harmonization of the interpersonal relationships between students is, perhaps, from the perspective of the child, an undeclared wish. But, from the teachers’ perspective, it is a major purpose and a fundamental condition, which should be fulfilled in order to create a safe, supportive and inclusive educational environment. In the present paper we address the issue of including students in the class-groups and highlight the importance of empowering students to solve their own interpersonal conflicts through a collaborative approach. Open dialogue and the construction of win-win solutions are the main components included in such student preparation. We consider that the students, even from primary school cycle, can be taught how to resolve their own interpersonal conflicts in a constructive way, through activities adapted to their age level, to the psychic, emotional, individual and group specificities. The theoretical and practical research we have done during the last three years confirms that the constant management of interpersonal conflicts through collaboration represents an alternative way through which teachers can facilitate the social inclusion of students in the group of co-elders and can ensure a high degree of cohesion of the class-group. The positive effects of resolving interpersonal conflicts through collaboration could be observed and monitored over time also in students with a special social situation. Students belonging to minorities, coming from single-parent families or even from orphanages have registered an increase in the index of sociometric status and a better social inclusion, as a result of participating in the activities of solving interpersonal conflicts through collaboration. Our practical research is still ongoing, but with this paper we bring to the teacher’s attention certain directions of action that we have followed and some partial results that we have recorded so far.