A study on conflicts experienced in classrooms of primary school teachers and conflict management strategies

The aim of this research is to determine the opinions of primary school teachers regarding conflicts in their classrooms and their conflict management strategies. In this research, which was designed as a qualitative study, the basic research method was preferred. The study group of the research consists of 32 primary school teachers working in 6 public schools (primary schools). Maximum diversity sampling in determining the schools where the research will be conducted; criterion sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used to determine the participants. Research data was collected with a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher and the obtained data was analyzed with the content analysis technique. In the research, it was determined that primary school teachers generally attributed a negative meaning to the concept of conflict and defined the concept of conflict as "miscommunication", "difference of opinion", "personality" and "interest" problem. In the research, the conflicts experienced in the classroom are due to "personality", "family", "technology/media", "school/classroom" and "environment"; it has been determined that the most frequently experienced conflicts are "verbal", "physical" and "social conflict types". In the research, conflicts have negative effects on teachers and students such as "low performance", "loss of motivation", "stress", "unhappiness", "anxiety" and "burnout", as well as "increase in communication", "motivation", "renewal". It has positive effects such as "increased effort" and "questioning"; it was concluded that classroom teachers use compromise, domination and avoidance strategies respectively to manage conflicts in the classroom and that the majority of teachers believe that they can manage conflicts in their classrooms.