Learning how to “better quarrel”: conflicts management without violence at school

Authors

  • Helga Loos Universidade Federal do Paraná
  • Thomas Vincenz Zeller Fórum de Serviço Civil pela Paz (Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v11i2.7471

Keywords:

interpersonal conflict, violence, non-violent communication, mediation, school education

Abstract

The current report describes an intervention experience, the goal being to foster social skills for successful resolutions of conflicts without physical or verbal violence. The intervention was designed to minimize aggressive episodes at school, and promote a healthier atmosphere, more favorable to the development of teaching and learning. A sequence of activities were applied over five consecutive days to approximately 120 second and third grade children and their teachers in a public primary school in Curitiba (Brazil). An extra workshop was presented to the pedagogical team, in which the theoretical bases of the program were discussed. The main purpose of these activities was the strengthening of the four basic competences needed for dealing with differences and conflicts: perception, communication, cooperation and self-esteem. The participants also had the opportunity to learn and to distinguish “wolf language” – communication suffering from ambiguity and a lack of recognition for individuals' real needs, from “giraffe language” - direct empathic communication. Participants considered the advantages of the latter and were trained in its use. The school community viewed the results of the intervention positively.

Keywords: interpersonal conflict; violence; non-violent communication; mediation; school education.

 

Downloads

How to Cite

Loos, H., & Zeller, T. V. (2007). Learning how to “better quarrel”: conflicts management without violence at school. Interação Em Psicologia, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v11i2.7471

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 2 (2007)

Section

Articles

License

The approval of articles implies the immediate acceptance, with no imposition, that the journal Interação em Psicologia will have the exclusivity of the first publication of the article. The authors will, notwithstanding, keep the copyrights for future publications. In case of republication of the articles in other media, it is demanded the mention to the first publication in the journal Interação em Psicologia. The authors also authorize their articles to be available in all the indexes of which the journal is included. 

The Editorial Board is not responsible for the concepts or statements expressed in the published works, which are the sole responsibility of their authors.

The journal Interação em Psicologia offers immediate open access to all its content, following the rationale that offering gratuitous scientific knowledge to the public promotes the democracy of knowledge and published works tend to produce higher impact. The published articles in the journal are available under the Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). According to this license, the access, distribution, reusing of the articles for non-commercial sources are allowed, provided that the authors and the source is referenced. When submitting articles to the journal Interação em Psicologia, authors agree with making their texts legally available based on this license.