Conflict Resolution

Conflict is a necessity.  Whenever people are passionate about what they believe in they stand up for it, and these situations result in conflict.  In the early childhood profession, passion for children is the driving force.  There are many times teachers, administration and parents may disagree on what children need for their future.  Since all three parties are advocates for the children agreements must be made in order to provide the child with the best care possible.  Many times discussions must be held, voices must be heard, plans must be developed and agreements must be made.  In order to accomplish these tasks in a productive, peaceful manner, conflict resolution skills are required.

Currently I am in the process of working with one of my students who has anger issues.  She is only four years old and acts out aggressively toward other students and teachers when she cannot be the center of attention or do what she wants to do.  She has been at our school for about 7 months and her behavior has not improved much.  In fact, the older she gets and the more intelligent she becomes, it seems her anger shows up more frequently.  Parents of her classmates and teachers have just about taken all they can and the time has come for a serious change.  We have had a behavioral specialist working with her and the family for about a month.  The last time she was in I informed her it was time to act and the two of us sat down and discussed what we thought would be best.  She shared her ideal plan for the girl explaining she wanted to place her in another room and rearrange her daily schedule.  I knew this would not work because there are already too many behavioral issues in one of the rooms she would be in and the placing this child there would not be a good fit.

Although I knew I would not implement her plan as soon as she told me, I decided to listen to let her explain her reasoning.  Once she was finished I explained why this would not work.  She understood and we discussed several other options.  Finally I came up with some alternatives based on her reasoning and she agreed they were great alternatives to her plan.   According to the three R's, we must be respectful, reciprocal and responsive.  I respected her enough to hear her out, I was then reciprocal by giving her my feedback, and then I responded to her suggestions with a few of my own.  By using these conflict resolution skills we were able to come up with a plan that seems to be working!