Analysis of primary school teachers' conflict management strategies and their conflict cases (A case study in the center county of Düzce province)

This study purposes to identify the conflict situations of teachers working in primary school in the Center County of Düzce Province in 2012-2013 academic year and the strategies they use to overcome these conflicts. The study is general survey method. ''Questionnaire'' and ''Scale of Conflict Management Strategies" were used. Four hundred ones of the ''Questionnaire'' determined by simple random sampling and used for sample and ''Scale of Conflict Management Strategies'' were under evaluation. In the analyses of data percentage, mean, standard deviation t-test, one-way variance analyze (ANOVA), Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis and as descriptive analysis LSD were used. In this study while teachers conflict mostly students and parents, they conflict with servants and others at least. As the most conflict topic for teacher is behaviours of students, the least conflict topic for techers is smoking in school. It's determined that while The most conflict reasons for teacher is disorder and lack of communication, the least conflict reasons for techers are lack of resources and places and collecting the money. It has observed that while the most of the teachers were affected negatively after conflicts, very few teachers were affect positively after conflicts. While the most of opponents were affected negatively after conflicts, one third of them weren't affected after conflicts. It seems that while the most of teachers's working performance weren't affected after conflicts, one-third of teachers' working performance decreased after conflicts. It has found that while the most of opponents's working performance weren't affected after conflicts, two-in five of opponents' working performance decreased after conflicts. It is stated that the teachers under this study while the integration strategy was performed mostly by the women, the compliance strategy was performed mostly by men. In terms of being married or single integration, compliance, avoidance, compromising, dominating strategies weren't seen significant difference as statistically. The teachers with 11-20 years and 21 years and more seniority prefer avoidance strategy more than the teachers with 1-10 years seniority. At the same time, the teachers with 21 years and more seniority prefer compromising strategy more than the teachers with 1-10 years seniority. Also it has stated that the teachers with 11-20 years and 21 years and more seniority prefer compliance strategy more than the teachers with 1-10 years seniority. In terms of being regular or paid teachers integration, compliance, avoidance, compromising, dominating strategies weren't seen significant difference as statistically. It has determined that the teachers of English, class, art, music, physical education and other branches prefer integration strategy more than Turkish and social teachers. The teachers of 31-40 ages and 41 and older than 41 prefer avoidance and compliance strategies more than the teachers of younger than 30 age. It has seemed that while the teachers graduated from university prefer integration strategy more than the teachers graduated from junior college, the teachers graduated from junior college prefer avoidance strategy more than the teachers graduated from university. It has determined that the integration and compromising strategies were used in the schools with 11-20, 21-30 and 31 and more than 31 teachers more than the schools with 1-10 teachers. The teachers with 5-8 and 9 and more than 9 years seniority in the same school prefer avoidance strategy more than the teachers with 1-4 years seniority. In-service training about conflict management and strategies can be done for school administrators and teachers to manage the comflicts in best way Key Words: Primary School, Teacher, Conflict, Management, Strategy.