AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH OF SOURCES OF CONFLICT AMONG STUDENTS

Abstract

In a broad sense, conflict is an interactive process displayed through incompatibility, disagreement or dissension among social entities such as individuals, groups, organizations, etc. In a society in a changing, based on competitiveness, conflict is an integral part of human relationships, as it is a natural component of everyday life. New perspectives on conflict agree that its presence is natural and inherent in the human activity. The educational context is, inevitably, a space of conflicts. According to the actors involved, there has been established the following typology of conflicts: (a) conflicts among students, (b) conflicts among students and teachers, (c) conflicts among teachers and parents, and (d) conflicts among teachers. This paper aims to study the sources of conflict between students at the gymnasium and high school levels to lay emphasis on the aspects that could generate situations of risk or even educational crisis. The starting point in the research was specific literature, the observations and the experiences in the classroom. The items identified were a competitive atmosphere, intolerance, deficient communication as a result of linguistic ambiguity, inappropriate expressions of emotions, aggressiveness, lack of skills in solving conflicts, abuse of teacher’s authority, etc. A questionnaire-based survey was developed, and the respondents were instructed to answer depending on how often they met the situations described by the indicators in the questionnaire. The results obtained were processed using the SPSS analysis. Further studies on conflicts between teachers and students/parents, teachers/peers can complete the research.