Browsing by Author "Oiva, Mari"

Research aims. The aim of the study is to examine what types of conflicts arise within first and second graders in primary education and how teachers experience these conflict situations and the process of resolving them. Numerous conflicts arise within first and second graders in their everyday school activities that require teacher’s attention. Previous studies have shown that these types of conflicts and the process of resolving them create a significant amount of stress for teachers. This study examines these conflict situations and how they come to existence in a school setting. Furthermore, teachers’ well-being at work and ability to manage work-related stress is being investigated together with questions such as which factors create stress for teachers, how stressful do teachers experience conflicts and the process of resolving them, what types of coping skills do teachers have for handling the stress arising from these conflicts and where do teachers acquire resources for their work. Methods. Five teachers who had experience on working with first and second graders in Helsinki region were interviewed for this study. Three of them were highly experienced whereas two were in the beginning of their teaching careers. Semi-structured interviews that were later carefully transcribed were used for data collection. Method of study was data-driven content analysis. All transcribed data was initially read through for an overall view. Later content that was most essential for research purposes and questions was inspected in more detail. The analysis was categorized to match research question of the present study as well as categories from previous studies and also connected to a broader research on the field. Finally, after describing the conflict situations and forming categories analyzing teachers’ experiences and coping skills, the most pivotal results were gathered. Results and conclusions. The conflicts within first and second graders emerged mainly in situations in which there was no adult supervision, when moving from one place to another or during class. The reasons behind these conflicts were often based in relationships, individual personality traits or specific situations that occurred in fast-phased school environment. According to the teachers, the most challenging part of the conflict resolution was the feeling of inadequacy. The less experienced teachers found these situations more challenging compared to those with more teaching experience as the latter often had better tools not only for resolving these conflicts but also for preventing them. Tools that the teachers used for resolving these conflicts were mostly resourceful and solution-focused.