Communicating Through Conflicts
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Ashford University *
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Communications
Date
Feb 20, 2024
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docx
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Communicating Through Conflict Christine Kaweck The University of Arizona Global Campus
ECE 313: Parent and Community Collaboration
Lorriane Lammert-Arndt
2 February 2024
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Communicating Through Conflict
Effective communication during a conflict is vital, it can help bring the conflict to resolution and help build trust. As an educator, you are not only working with your students but with their families as well, which can be very challenging at times. Understanding that every family will have a different dynamic and your will be dealing with different personalities so it will be important to strengthen you communication. The first thing I would want to do as an educator is create a safe and healthy environment for your students and their families. When you establish the trust early on, you will be able to communicate effectively if you were to face a conflict. Conflicts I have yet to experience any conflict in the classroom setting, but through out my military
career and as a mother, I have faced many conflicts. “Conflicts, confusion, and disagreements can cause intense feelings amongst those involved. To address conflicts and disagreement, we must try to determine where these feelings come from. (Wardle, 2022) On a daily basis, I often play the mediator to my two daughters who are 3 and 5. There isn’t a day that goes by they don’t encounter a conflict amongst themselves. Often the conflicts occur when I am at work, so my nanny is the one to notify me and we must go over what happened. We have established our effective communication early on, so we are often able to resolve the conflicts with ease. Trust between my nanny and I, allow us to have open conversations and allow to ask questions and find the root cause of the conflicts. “We all have feelings, and it is very important to accept and appreciate these feelings. We need to reflect on our feelings and on why certain things make us feel a certain way.” (Wardle, 2022). Conflicts at work are not as easy to resolve, I am in charge of 167 people, so conflicts happen daily at work. It is hard to establish trust with each member
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that I oversee. Effective communication is key when the trust has not been built yet. One of the biggest conflicts that I deal with is scheduling, and trying to ensure each member knows their schedule. If there is no communication, there are often people aren’t aware there have been changes and that causes conflicts within the workstation. Reactions
The way we react to conflict can determine the outcome, it can either escalate the conflict
or resolve the conflict. With the conflicts I have dealt with, I have come to find, not matter what has happened it best to approach the conflict calm. Most of the time, the conflicts are minor and can be resolved quickly, but occasionally you have to practice effective communication and work through the conflict to get to the root cause. When you are dealing with different personalities and a lot of different emotions, communication is so important. I believe that families will appreciate it when the educator is understanding and is not defensive when they are dealing with conflicts. Educator need to understand that children will tend to mirror your behavior, so it is important to remain calm and listen to all sides involved and talk your way through the situation. “We all have feeling, and it is very important to accept and appreciate these feelings. We need to reflect on our feelings and on why certain things make us feel a certain way.” (Wwardle, 2022)
Relationships
Building a relationship with your students and their families is so important, once you start the relationship you can work on building trust. Trust can be difficult to build, especially if the students or families have had negative experiences in the past. When working on building
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trust, utilizing tools such as the RERUN (Reflect, Explain, Reason, Understand, and Negotiate) process, will help you become successful in building trust. This process helps you approach a conflict and consider all parties involved, and hold them accountable for their actions. When you
build positive relationships, all parties show growth, and this growth will help your student become successful and develop. NAEYC principle P-1.7 states, “We shall strive to build individual relationships with each child; make individualized adaptions in teaching strategies, learning environment, and cirricula; and consult with the family so that each child benefits from the program.” (NAEYC, 2011). Positive relationships cultivate trust and will allow to perform and work with their peers and adults in their lives. Resolution
Resolution is important when dealing with conflict with your students and their families. Resolution brings people together to figure out what the root cause is and to come up with a solution rather than allowing the conflict to cause separation. The goal within a school environment, work environment or home environment is to create an inclusive atmosphere and ensure all parties know how to manage conflicts and resolve them. Conclusion
Communicating through conflicts is extremely important and it is also important to understand that communication can be complex. When working with students and their families, communication should be the first thing that is established while you are building your relationships. As educators, we will deal with conflict daily, but knowing how to approach a
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conflict and resolve the conflict is key. Utilizing the tools we have been shown can assist and help educators be successful which in the end will ensure our students are successful. REFERENCES:
Wardle, F. (2022) Collaboration with Families and Communities. Zovio
NAEYC (2011) Naeyc Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment. Retrieved from: https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/
resources/position-statements/Ethics%20Positions
%Statement2011_09202013update.pdf