ALIMBA N. CHINYERE (Ph.D)
Center for Peace and Security Studies
Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola (Formally, Federal University of Technology, Yola) Adamawa State, Nigeria
Email: chivoplc@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
The school system is awash with various intensities of conflicts. School personnel, especially teachers,
are faced with the serious problem of how to mitigate these conflicts without recording much success.
This is because of poor orientations of teachers about conflict management dynamics. Their poor knowledge of conflict dynamics and its management approaches has exposed them to the various negative consequences of conflict situation. This article therefore, explored the issues of school conflict and its management approaches. In doing this, it argued that conflict in the school is a normal and
expected phenomenon but becomes unacceptable when it escalates beyond the normal limit. In this study,
the various forms of school conflict were discussed, as well as their specific causes and consequences.
The role of perception in conflict and how teachers can effectively confront school conflict were explored. The aim is to keep teachers abreast of the changing contours of school conflict and to make sure that they are equipped with the required knowledge for its constructive management in order to
enhance their productivity. Key words: conflict, conflict management styles, school conflict, teachers, perception,
INTRODUCTION
School conflict has become a black box in social conflict discourse, at least in developing countries,
particularly in Nigeria. The obvious fact is that religious conflict, communal conflict, ethnic conflict, and
electoral violence, just to mention a few, have taken the centre stage in social discourses on conflict.
Specialists in peace and conflict studies hardly write on school conflict, which has created a lacuna in its
understanding and make the existence of local scholarly works scarce on the subject. Most of the available
materials on school conflict were written by those who are not specialist in peace and conflict studies, and
particularly in school conflict. The effect of this development is that the nature of knowledge being
disseminated on the subject is greatly limited. The seriousness of the subject and my professional
background in both education and peace and conflict studies motivated this effort to begin to open the
box.
The school as a social institution is a conflict-ridden environment and has been classified as the highest conflict brewing organisation. Conflict is an ever-present phenomenon in all social organisations, but conflict manifesting in the school far surpasses those emerging from other organisations. For
instances, Lippitt (1982) asserted that conflict management in schools commanded nearly 49% of the attention of schools as compared to 24% in other management positions. This idea gives insight into the fact that conflict is more pervasive in the school than any other social organisation. This was also
confirmed by Dipaola and Hoy (2001) that conflict is indeed on the daily menu of school administration.
Spring (1993) partly highlighted the reason for the pervasiveness of conflicts in the school, when he
submitted that the educational settings are even more conducive to repeated conflict situations because of
their inherent political, economic and social characteristics. People go to school with different orientations, ideas, views and backgrounds. The interplay of these variables, without conscious display of understanding and tolerance will trigger conflict in enormous proportions in the system. Even teaching and learning process which is the core of the system is not immune from conflict. Barsky (2003) and
Msila (2012) are of the opinion that the process of teaching and learning is fraught with conflict and it
