Conflict Resolution

Educators can help students develop conflict resolution skills in several ways, including the following:

1. Be authoritative and use inductive discipline. When educators manage students in an authoritative way, and use inductive discipline, they model negotiation, give-and-take, fairness, and respect for others’ views.
2. Promote emotional competence. Students who can regulate their own emotions, not respond in hot-headed ways, and read others’ emotions will resolve conflicts more constructively. Students with better people-reading skills, a sense of humor, and moral judgment will resolve conflicts more constructively. Both empathy (concern for others’ perspectives) and equitable goals must be discussed. Trying to promote empathy alone may soften discord, but can perpetrate injustices that cause more conflict [7].  (See white papers on Emotion Regulation and Affective Perspective-taking for how to do this.)
3. Directly teach conflict-resolution skills. Many teachers do not feel confident about handling conflict and may opt for quick, short-term fixes to achieve peace rather than focusing on building long-term skills [8]. Teachers often promote disengagement because it feels easier in the moment, rather than teaching respectful compromise.
4. Become tuned to your students’ conflict-resolution abilities. Older students are less likely to seek teacher help for peer conflict than younger students. Typically, students try to resolve conflict with coercion before going to the teacher, using the teacher only as a fallback strategy. However, do not intervene in conflicts unless it is necessary or someone is victimized. Give students the opportunity to develop conflict-resolution skills. When intervention is necessary, scaffold compromise and negotiation, rather than disengagement.

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