Conflict and Consequences - the importance of De-escalation

Conflict and De-escalation

Conflict in inevitable!

How teachers manage conflict can make a significant difference to the learning outcomes for their students. 

Poorly managed conflict, characterised by confrontation and escalation, can result in a host of undesirable outcomes for both teachers and students: broken relationships, development of low trust, reinforcement of deficit thinking, lowered expectations, social exclusion, reduced accessibility to learning resources.

However, well-managed conflict can result in strengthened relationships, development of high trust, strengths-based thinking, higher expectations, collaboration and improved engagement with learning resources.

What would you do?

Below are 5 common situations that present in the classroom. Although these scenarios are written for the English classroom, the behaviours will not be unfamiliar. As you read each teacher scenario, think of how you would respond to the presenting situation.

1)   A student arrives late and refuses to sit in their assigned seat. You have always used a seating plan and do so for all your classes.

2)   A student with an untucked shirt who clearly needs a shave arrives in your period 3 class. It is your job to uphold the uniform policies. The homeroom teacher, P1 and P2 teachers have clearly not done their job in supporting you. 

3)   A student in class refuses to take out their chosen book for sustained silent reading period 5. You have given them valuable class time to get ahead so that they can finish their reports at home, which were due last week according to the scheme of work. The report deadline is next week.

4)   A student given a whole lesson of your precious class time writes one line on the page. It is the task instruction copied from the board.

5)   A student continually disrupts the lesson while you are teaching from the front of the class. Some of their comments have been targeted at mocking others in the class and how boring your lesson is.

Reflection: 

While thinking through these scenarios, what things came to mind from your perspective? 

Did you consider the importance of upholding school rules, driving the curriculum, getting results, issuing the expected punishment for the presenting misbehaviour? 

How much time you spent considering the intent, conflict or challenge that each situation posed for the student? Was the student given a voice in your response?

Below are the same 5 scenarios, viewed from the student perspective. As you read these student scenarios, consider the barriers or challenges to learning that each student may be experiencing.

1)   You arrive late and refuse to sit in your assigned seat because the person beside you has been bullying you and your friends online.

2)   You arrive with an untucked shirt, unshaven to period 3. You were out on the field with your mates and a boy from another class challenged one of your mates to a fight. You didn’t hear the bell.

3)   You are asked to take out your chosen novel for sustained silent reading period 5. Your parents recently split, and you are ashamed to talk about it. You left your English novel at your Dad’s after staying the weekend with him. You are fed up with teachers giving you a hard time all day and wished someone would understand.

4)   You are expected to complete a personal response to an issue important to you and you have been given a whole lesson to write one page to be submitted at the end of the lesson. You copy the task from the board onto your refill, but don’t understand what you are supposed to do. You were referred out of Maths earlier in the day when you were unable to do the assigned work and you only got 2/10 on your Science quiz last period.

5)   You are finding the lesson really boring and so you have been amusing yourself by mocking your friends and checking your phone to check the time, hoping it will pass quickly so you can get to lunch. You don’t understand much of what the teacher is talking about so when she calls on you and asks you a question you say how boring she always is. You feel she always picks on you so you imply that she is racist.

Reflection:

Look back to the responses that you had to the teacher scenarios. After reading the student scenarios, consider the ways in which your responses may have led to student engagement, and the ways in which your responses may have led to an escalation of conflict. 

Conflict

There are 4 main categories of conflict that students may have with any given learning activity, learning environment or learning partner (including their teacher).

A)   Relational Conflict – challenges interacting with others due to perceived obstacles of past                     conflict

B)   Values-based Conflict – challenges doing what one is asked to do because of internal disaccord

C)   Situational Conflict – the setting (baggage) provides personal obstacles to success

D)   Cognitive Conflict – challenges in completing an intellectual or learning task

       
Often, student responses to these different types of conflict may be mature, thoughtful, and reflect a high level of tenacity and resilience. However, when the level of perceived threat is high, resilience skills are insufficient and/or past experiences have proven the presenting conflict to be a losing battle students may respond to the following perceived conflicts.

A)  Lack of control – confrontational student feels subordinate/disrespected, not wanting to lose face

B   Cultural Mismatch - reactive response;  seemingly unprompted, misplaced or excessive

C)  Accumulation – past experiences (recent and old) results in inflexibility or disengagement

D)  Fight or flight – disengagement motivated by fear of failure, not knowing what to do next

Developing an awareness of the types of conflicts and lived outcomes of students can help to inform our teacher responses. Moreover, questioning our own assumptions regarding the motivations and causes of presenting problematic behaviours can help increase the range of approaches we may use to get students back to learning.

The table below outlines a number of common behaviours that can be catalysts for escalation, considers intentions and influences that inform the behaviours and provides strategies to consider. Both immediate and long-term/preventative strategies can be considered. At the centre of all behaviour management responses must be the core goal of getting the student back on track with the learning activity or programme.

Behaviour	Intention or Influence	Strategy
Arrives Late	Honest Mistake  or Attention Seeking  or Lack of Responsibility	Assist student to engage in learning activity, ask for explanation later. Teach time management later.
Uniform incorrect	Unaware  or Attention Seeking  or Lack of Responsibility	Assist student to engage in learning activity, use a de-personalised approach to reinforce common   expectations
Incorrect Gear	Irresponsible  or Family Circumstance  or Personal Issue	Provide student with missing gear, have clear expectations of what the consequence will be – must be a learning and/or service activity
Misbehaviour	Lack of Confidence  or Fear of Failure	Scaffold the learning activties, use easy starters which assess obstacles, praise work done well - success breeds success
Defiance	Seeking control	Provide choices, assign responsibilities/roles

De-escalation Techniques:

When these behaviours present themselves in our classes we need to have strategies in place which validate the student experience, move the student out of a defensive mode and back into a position where they are open to learning. The following techniques can help pave the road map from de-escalation to engagement. 

1)   Acknowledge  - recognize the student for the unique person they are

2)   Empathise – offer an understanding ear

3)   Appreciate – recognize what they have done right, that they have shared their feelings

4)   Refocus on learning – put the acute needs into perspective and refocus on a scaffolded task

5)   Have high expectations – of behavior, engagement and achievement

6)   Help the student experience success – Success builds success, praise the hard work they have             done.