At the after-school center, at which I’ve been working for about twenty years, I have noticed different kinds of conflicts. There are conflicts during both indoor and outdoor activities. Lately I’ve been thinking about both why these conflicts occur and how the conflicts are solved in a way that’s developing both the pupils and pedagogues. In this study, I’m looking for answers to four questions: What conflicts occur during breaks and at after-school center? What thoughts do the pupils have regarding conflicts they have observed at the after-school centers or breaks? How do the pedagogues perceive the pupils’ thoughts about conflicts? How do the pupils and the pedagogues make use of possibilities created by the conflicts? To get answers about what kind of conflicts that occur (question 1), I made observations at two centers. In total, there were six observations, twenty minutes each. During these observations, I made a protocol of six incidents. The conflicts I have observed are mostly between two pupils and have elements of both verbal and physical activity. With these events as a starting point I made five group interviews in total at the two after-school centers. At every group interview three pupils attended. The purpose was to hear the pupils’ reflections regarding the observed conflicts and how the conflicts can be made useful (questions 2 and 4). In their answers the pupils showed that they had reflected regarding the six types of conflicts at different ways. Some pupils stated that all events are frequently occurring at the after-school center. The reasons can be that a pupil wants to reach his/ her goals, for example get first in line, win the soccer game or get away when he/ she get tagged at playing dabbed. Then you push yourself ahead or tackle others. At playing dabbed the pupils find several reasons why they are not dabbed even though they know they are dabbed. Another goal that the pupils strive to reach is to get their will through. For example, by moaning to get to play alone with your best friend or show yourself strong by hitting others with sticks (even if it means that the one that is beaten gets sad or angry). It also revealed that pupils run or walk away at fights or go to the teacher to get help. The third part of the study is individual interviews with four pedagogues, two at respectively after-school center. The purpose was to hear their point of view about the pupils’ reflections of the observed conflicts and their opinions on how the conflicts can contribute to the development of the pupils (question 3 and 4). The pedagogues say that the pupils have many good ideas about how they can solve conflicts, both alone and with the help of the pedagogues, in a good way. The pedagogues regard the six events as tangible situations that can be useful regarding conflict handling and at creating proactive activities. One conclusion is that the pedagogues view the conflicts as a learning process contributing to the pupils’ development and rarely as a problem. Another conclusion is that the pedagogues try to get the pupils to solve the conflicts by themselves, but to be nearby if the conflicts cannot be solved. The pupils mean that during a conflict you can together decide upon a solution. Maybe a compromise is possible for solving the conflict so that the work or play can be continued. Frequently occurring proposals from the pupils, at the interviews, are to offer different kinds of activities either to solve the conflict or to learn from the conflict. Examples are to show empathy, suggest cooperation, support the one that is hurt, pull away in order to not enhance the conflict and to intervene when the conflicts are violent. These actions the pedagogues can follow up afterwards to proactively obstruct new conflicts. One conclusion is that the presence of a pedagogue is of importance to minimize the conflicts between pupils.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-32611 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Borgbrant, Daniel |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Lärarutbildningen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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