Education Through Conflict: On the Role of Conflict in the Development of a Student’s Personality

Abstract

The text presents the author’s reflections on some of the consequences of conflicts on students’ development. The author shows what students learn from conflicts, both the positive and negative consequences of conflicts and which depend on the way of dealing with conflict. Aversion towards conflicts, sanctions against their participants, poor relations, the feeling of victimization, frustration and hostility towards one another are listed as the consequences of unresolved conflicts. The resolved conflicts are analyzed as a redefinition of standards to new conditions, developing common standards, building relationships and creating cohesion in the group, overcoming stagnation, initiating changes, revealing contradictions in the group, restoring balance. Above all, they also create a belief that conflict may contribute to a positive change as an educational situation where the social learning occurs. The author refers to Andrzej Olubiński’s studies and her own research to list three possible educational relations in a conflict and their consequences for the shaping of a student’s personality. These are: authority and loyal subject relation, passive and conservative relation and conflict for learning relation. They support different kind of personality such as the authoritarian, the passive and the creative personality. Whether the conflict enables the building of a creative attitude depends on the conflict awareness which tutors help to develop. Their pedagogical knowledge on the topic of conflict awareness provides the opportunity to use conflict as an educational situation which is beneficial for the development of a student’s personality.