Children’s stories of conflict at school : exploring "realities" of resolution through narrative

Through a narrative research design, six elementary school children identified by their teachers as having an above average ability to deal effectively with conflict situations were invited to share their own personal experience of conflict at school. The telling of these stories was intended to provide a series of snapshots capturing these children's "realities" of conflict, including their perceptions of how a particular incident unfolded, as well as what factors they believed were responsible both for its occurrence and the manner in which it was handled. By encouraging these children to regard themselves as "experts" on the subject, this study also explored how the process of telling their stories was impacted by asking the children to speak from the authority of their experience. Through this recognition of the children's expertise, it was hoped that a refreshing context would be created that facilitated certain insight less likely to be found in the advice-laden dialogues that characteristically occur between adults and children. In response to the growing body of research supporting the implementation of school-wide peer mediation and conflict resolution training programs, this study explored the process of beginning first with children's perspectives of conflict in their world in an effort to gain some sense of the meaning-making processes employed by young people in these situations. Careful attention was paid to the influence of "power" on the adult-child dialogues that facilitated the telling of these stories. Data was collected in the form of co-constructed narratives, field observations that focused on process, premise and content, and teacher's reflections of the children. Findings are reported in the form of themes and interpretations based on the children's stories, as well as profiles summarizing each child's narrative journey. Implications of results and suggestions for further research are also discussed.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat