This research represents an innovative examination of the role of university educators in protracted ethnic conflict. In this exploratory qualitative case study, Israeli professors from five universities were asked to share their experiences and opinions as educators. They were invited to share their perceptions and perspectives when asked if they chose to challenge conflict narratives in the classroom. Research participants were asked to picture the future and to communicate their fears, worries, hopes and wishes. The educators interviewed in this study felt the atmosphere in Israel was hostile to individuals who teach from a critical standpoint and that there could be repercussions for persons who challenged the Zionist narrative. Educators used a variety of methods regarding contested materials: some spoke freely, many used a comparative approach using examples external to Israel, and some refused to discuss sensitive issues in the classroom. The results of this study point to an escalation in extreme positions in Israel, an inhospitable atmosphere for critical academics and a general pessimism regarding the future. However, this study also revealed the majority of those interviewed used strategies to challenge narratives of conflict in the classroom and most felt it was essential and beneficial to do so. Many respondents felt worried and uncertain about the future, most struggled to imagine a future that encompassed the qualities of ‘positive peace’ including mutual cooperation and equity among individuals and even fewer could imagine the means to manifest such a reality. When asked to imagine the future, responses were conservative, pessimistic and fearful and few educators articulated their professional contributions to social change.

This research represents an innovative examination of the role of university educators in protracted ethnic conflict. In this exploratory qualitative case study, Israeli professors from five universities were asked to share their experiences and opinions as educators. They were invited to share their perceptions and perspectives when asked if they chose to challenge conflict narratives in the classroom. Research participants were asked to picture the future and to communicate their fears, worries, hopes and wishes. The educators interviewed in this study felt the atmosphere in Israel was hostile to individuals who teach from a critical standpoint and that there could be repercussions for persons who challenged the Zionist narrative. Educators used a variety of methods regarding contested materials: some spoke freely, many used a comparative approach using examples external to Israel, and some refused to discuss sensitive issues in the classroom. The results of this study point to an escalation in extreme positions in Israel, an inhospitable atmosphere for critical academics and a general pessimism regarding the future. However, this study also revealed the majority of those interviewed used strategies to challenge narratives of conflict in the classroom and most felt it was essential and beneficial to do so. Many respondents felt worried and uncertain about the future, most struggled to imagine a future that encompassed the qualities of ‘positive peace’ including mutual cooperation and equity among individuals and even fewer could imagine the means to manifest such a reality. When asked to imagine the future, responses were conservative, pessimistic and fearful and few educators articulated their professional contributions to social change.

Scholars have described conflict tactics as a means to engage or avoid a conflict, and face tactics as a means of face-saving by way of defense or restoration. While theories of conflict and face flourish, few researchers have sought an explanation of conflict themes within the field of nursing or examined how nurses display face-saving tactics within their conflict interactions. The goal of this study is to identify the connection of these concepts through a qualitative analysis of conflict stories compiled from interviews with licensed floor-nurses. The data is analyzed two ways: first, as conflict themes in stories about nurses’ floor/shift work; and secondly, as communicative face tactics used in conjunction with conflict styles as viewed through a nurses’ conflict-interaction. The study identified three outcomes. From the analysis of conflict stories, an updated and extended view of conflict themes in nursing is developed. Specific face tactics surfaced within certain conflict themes supporting the concept that face tactics can directly affect the outcome of a conflict interaction. And lastly, the discovery of new restorative and defensive face tactics not previously identified in research literature. The implications for theory and practical application are also discussed, as is the proposed direction for future research. / text

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