Developing conflict resolution skills among pre-primary children: Views and practices of naturalized refugee parents and teachers in Tanzania

Abstract

This study examined parents and teachers’ strategies to develop conflict resolution skills among naturalized refugee pre-primary children in Tanzania. A total of 8 school principals, 18 teachers, and 15 parents – by then serving in the Parent-School Association – were selected on the virtue of their positions. Findings revealed that pre-primary stakeholders preferred adult intervention, religious and vocational lessons, and establishing children’s government as strategies to develop conflict resolution skills. However, there was no specific strategy suggested by the existing curriculum documents. It was reported that poor parent–school relationship, lack of curriculum guidelines, poverty, and poor mastery of Kiswahili – the language of instruction – were the main challenges in developing naturalized former refugee children’s conflict resolution skills. These findings underline that, given the benefit associated with pre-primary education for children form disadvantaged backgrounds, and in order to ensure naturalized refugee children are developing to their fullest potentials and integrated into a host society, deliberate efforts are much needed to devising appropriate strategies to develop naturalized refugee children’s constructive conflict resolution skills.

Keywords

Conflict resolution in early childhood naturalized refugees pre-primary education Tanzania

Introduction

Children live in an ever-changing society in which escalation of conflict is a predominant issue, and violence and aggression due to conflict are increasingly pressing issues in schools (Van Acker, 1993; Wallensteen, 2015). Pre-primary educators are faced with a task of mitigating this conflict behaviour before children are ready to learn (Johnson and Johnson, 2000; Madalina, 2016). This is because, if this situation prolongs for a long time, it is likely that the future society will be characterized by frequent and unnecessary conflicts. This goal may be accomplished by creating a peaceful and non-violent environment and educating children on amicable conflict resolution skills (Aurora, 1994; Johnson and Johnson, 1995; Rubenstein, 2018).

Dealing with conflict that escalates regularly among children can be an extremely frustrating experience (Ayas et al., 2010; Rubenstein, 2018). Studies have shown that children are likely to engage in up to eight peer conflicts per hour during a typical day (Edet et al., 2017; Hakvoort and Olsson, 2014; Johnson and Johnson, 2000). While this may seem excessive, most conflicts tend to be short in duration – around 30 seconds – and are often resolved by children themselves with little or no guidance from adults (Johnson and Johnson, 2000; Tobin, 2017; Tobin et al., 1989).

Although not all children’s conflicts require adult intervention, it is important for adults to teach children how to handle conflicts effectively at an early age (Bonache et al., 2016; Edet, et al., 2017). Studies indicate that violent behaviours are often learned early in kindergarten, if not before (Bonache et al., 2016; Stevahn et al., 2000). Without proper intervention, these behaviours tend to worsen. It has been discovered that by the age of 8, most of the violent behaviours exhibited during the kindergarten years are very difficult to change (Aboud and Hossain, 2010; Green, 2006). For this reason, pre-primary experts recommend that children be taught conflict resolution skills as early as possible (Johnson and Johnson, 2000; Tobin et al., 1989). The more often children are exposed to constructive conflict management, the more likely they will be able to retain the skills needed to resolve conflict with their peers as they grow older (Edet, et al., 2017; Johnson and Johnson, 1996).

Literally, stakeholders’ strategies for developing conflict resolution skills among pre-primary children face several challenges (Rubenstein, 2018; Stevahn et al., 2000; Van Acker, 1993). Some scholars associate these challenges with inborn characteristics of children, while others view as being triggered by the environment (Adeyami, 2009; Edet, et al., 2017; Okotoni and Okotoni, 2009). Many individual characteristics that exist may aid or hinder the development of conflict resolution skills (Edet, et al., 2017; Stevahn et al., 2000). Twin data consistently support the hypothesis that individual differences in emotionality in infancy are strongly affected by genetic factors (Plomin, 1987). Studies measuring genetic continuity of social skill development from infancy to adulthood, including studies among adoptive infants and their biological parents, have not shown significant continuity between parents and off-springs (Edet, et al., 2017; Johnson and Johnson, 2000; Plomin, 1987). Nonetheless, the data provide a hint of possible genetic influence in that a significant correlation emerges between biological mothers and the emotionality of infants given up for adoption (Plomin, 1987).

On the other hand, environment plays a very important role in developing conflict resolution skills among pre-primary children (Hakvoort and Olsson, 2014; Plomin, 1987; Rothbart et al., 1994). Various studies indicate that mothers who exhibited competence in responding to hypothetical child-related means-end thinking were likely to offer suggestions, state the consequences, and talk to their children about feelings when they were faced with real-life situations (Rothbart et al., 1994). However, other studies have shown that in spite of finding no gender differences in the children’s interpersonal cognitive problem solving skills, mothers’ cognitive problem solving skills, and child-rearing style correlated with skills of daughters but not of sons (Hakvoort and Olsson, 2014; Rothbart et al., 1994; Rubenstein, 2018; Shure, 1982). However, in developing countries such as Tanzania, teaching pre-primary children to constructively resolve conflicts faces the challenge of getting parents involved (Ndijuye, 2016; Ndijuye and Rao, 2018a). In most cases, parents are less involved in teaching children this necessary life skill (Johnson and Johnson, 2000; Kuch, 2016; Ndijuye, 2016). Cummings et al. (1985) claims that inter-parental conflict has been demonstrated to have a negative effect on the adjustment of pre-primary children, while research into the area of perceived family conflict has demonstrated both statistically significant and clinically meaningful results for pre-primary children (Hakvoort and Olsson, 2014; Rothbart et al., 1994).

Naturalized refugee pre-primary children in Tanzania

For over 50 years, Tanzania has been a home to over 2,000,000 refugees who fled their countries for political or economic reasons, or because of civil war (Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), 2014; UNHCR, 2013). Most of them come from such neighbouring countries as Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Rwanda, and Somalia. The first wave of refugees, commonly known as ‘the first case-load’, came to Tanzania in 1972 (Centre for the Study of Forced Migration (CSFM), 2008; UNHCR, 2013). This group was initially settled in different parts of the Kigoma region, especially in border villages along Kigoma and Kasulu towns. About two-thirds of them were later moved to Ulyankulu, Mishamo, and Katumba settlement areas in the Tabora and Katavi regions, while the rest remained in villages among the local majority, as ‘self-settled refugees’ (CSFM, 2008).

By 2010, the first case-load refugee population had risen from 150,000 to about 240,000, while the self-settled population had grown from about 55,000–90,000 (UNHCR, 2014), some 72% of whom were born in Tanzania (MoHA, 2014). The second wave of refugees (or second case-load) came to Tanzania throughout the last decade of the 20th century, and was settled in camps in north-western Tanzania (UNHCR, 2014) – see Table 1. However, some illegally moved from those refugee camps to urban areas across Tanzania and beyond (CSFM, 2008; Chaulia, 2003).

By 2008, peace and stability had been officially restored in almost all neighbouring countries that had experienced socio-political upheaval, and the second case-load was repatriated, or resettled in a third country (CSFM, 2008). The government of Tanzania and international donor agencies had to seriously consider long-term solutions for the first case-load of refugees still in settlement areas, as well as the self-settled refugees. This group was considered distinct, due to both the length of time they had been in exile in Tanzania (more than two-third were born in Tanzania), and their economic benefit to the country (Kuch, 2016; Ongpin, 2008). In 2007, Tanzania announced its readiness to naturalize those who wanted to stay (CSFM, 2008). However, the 1972 self-settled refugees were not included in this programme until 2010, when the government sorted out their civil status by naturalizing them (Chaulia, 2003; MoHA, 2014; UNHCR, 2012). This study focuses on children from both the first case-load self-settled naturalized refugees and those in settlement areas.

Educational context of naturalized refugee pre-primary children

In 2016, there were 1,340,090 pre-primary pupils enrolled in Tanzania, out of an eligible pool of 1,435,000 children. Among those enrolled, 17,089 were children of naturalized refugees (Ministry of Education, Science and Training (MEST), 2017; UNHCR, 2016). In the same year, there were 13,354 qualified pre-primary teachers, making the teacher-pupils’ ratio 1:78 compared with a 1:25 international standard ratio (MEST, 2017). However, most of the qualified teachers preferred to reside and work in urban areas, resulting in lower teacher–child ratios in rural pre-primary schools (Mtahabwa, 2010). In 2012, the Kigoma and Katavi regions – home to the highest number of naturalized and settled eligible refugee pre-primary children (42,156) – had a qualified teacher–child ratio of 1:141. In rural Kigoma and Katavi regions, only about 50% and 52%, respectively, of eligible children were enrolled, far below the national average of 71.4% (MEST, 2017). Being born and growing-up as an immigrant refugee in camps and settlement areas comes with a lot of traumatic and psychological experiences (Kuch, 2016; Tobin, 2017). Given limited number of qualified pre-primary teachers and acute shortage of other educational resources in rural Tanzania, strategies to teach such skills as conflict resolutions to newly naturalized refugee children, is so far unknown. As such, this study intended to achieve the following objectives,

Examine parents and teachers’ most common strategies and techniques used to develop children’s conflict resolution skills;

Explore challenges that parents and teachers encounter in the process of developing children’s conflict resolution skills.

Method

Sample selection

The study used a homogeneous purposive sampling to obtain an in-depth understanding of most common strategies and challenges which faced parents and teachers in developing conflict resolution skills among naturalized refugee pre-primary children. Kigoma and Katavi regions are home to the highest number of immigrant naturalized refugees of mixed nationalities than any other region in Tanzania, thus, purposively selected. Pre-primary schools (four from each region) with largest number of naturalized refugee children were selected, based on the assumption that the larger the school, the more the conflicts. The information about the number of children, frequency of cases related to escalation of conflicts, and location of a school was obtained from the local education office. This technique was also used in the selection of parents and classroom teachers.

Participants

Eight school principals (1 from each participating school), 24 classroom teachers (3 from each of the schools), and 16 parents (8 from each region) by then serving in the Parent-School Committee (PTC; 2 from each school) were selected on the virtue of their positions. Parents who were members of PTC together with teachers, reportedly supervised daily school activities on behalf of other parents; hence, the researcher assumed that they have deeper understanding of both curricular and extra-curricular levels and performance of children.

Instruments for data collection

The study triangulated semi-structured interviews, focus group discussion (FGD), and documentary analyses. The semi-structured interviews were used with each recruited school principal and teacher, while FGD was used with parents. These techniques permitted the establishment of rapport and co-operation between researcher and informants – which is essential in qualitative research. The process involved face-to-face conversations where information was noted down in the field notebook complimented by a tape recorder. The responses were later compared with responses of other groups in the study.

The analysed documents were the 2014 Tanzania Education and Training Policy (ETP), Teachers’ lesson plans, meeting minutes of the school management team and school boards. It was advantageous to analyse the said documents for they could be secured quickly, easily, and covered a wider geographical area and longer reference periods without much cost (Creswell, 2009; Punch, 2005).

Ethical issues

An introductory letter from Tanzania Ministry of Education, and permission from districts, wards, and village executive officers were obtained earlier. Finally, the researcher had to consult school authorities to obtain parents’ consent to include their children in the study. Confidentiality was observed – unauthorized persons had no access to the collected data.

Data analyses

Data were subjected to interpretational analyses which involved systematic set of procedures to code and classify qualitative data. The raw data obtained from semi-structured interviews and FGDs were coded to obtain relevant texts, repeated ideas, themes, theoretical constructs, research concerns, and theoretical narratives. From repeating ideas, themes and sub-themes were allowed to naturally develop. Themes were organized into abstract ideas or theoretical constructs and later developed into theoretical narratives which were used to bridge between the concern of the researcher and participants’ subjective experiences using their own words.

In analysing documents, two issues guided the development of the themes: (a) How information were presented and (b) the status of the policy statement/resolution/decision. The said documents were personally and/or electronically collected and analysed by the researcher. In order to maximize objectivity, the techniques of communicability, transparency, and coherence were deployed (Auerbach and Silverstein, 2003). It is important to note that in analysing oral and documentary data, the researcher bracketed all of his previous understandings, beliefs, and assumptions (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2012).

Results

Though not the primary focus of the current study, the author was concerned to clearly understand what conflict and conflict resolution skills was conceptualized by the informants. While both teachers and parents agreed and considered conflict as a battle, fight or prolonged struggle between opposing forces which can include beliefs and ideas which may result into physical or verbal clash, school principals had a broader view by considering that conflict may occur psychologically as emotional distress between incompatible wishes within an individual. One school principal reported that

Children as people come from various backgrounds. They have individual wishes, dreams and expectations. However, sometimes things do not work their ways, hence find themselves in personal conflicts. In a school context, individual conflicts are more delicate to handle

On conflict resolution skills, stakeholders were of the view that it was the process of attempting to resolve a dispute which occurs only by listening to and providing opportunities to meet the needs of all parties and to adequately address interests so that all parts are satisfied with the outcomes. One school teacher revealed that

In a classroom context, conflict resolution skills must focus on addressing various manifestations of conflicts and the underlying conditions, attitudes and relationships that give rise to, and sustain violent conflict, with a view of developing sustainable peace. When developing conflict resolution skills among pre-primary children, the focus should be beyond conflict management

Teachers and parents’ most common strategies to develop conflict resolution skills

The key question asked was that ‘is there any means you use in your pre-primary school to ensure that naturalized refugee children resolve conflicts without adults’ interventions?’ The assumption was that school principals, classroom teachers, and parents were most likely to rely on adults to resolve children’s conflicts rather than using various interventional approaches to help them develop specific conflict resolution skills. After intensive and extensive analyses of data, three themes were developed: (a) school-enhanced, (b) home-enhanced, and (c) policy-related strategies.

School-based strategies

Data analyses revealed that pre-primary school principals exclusively used almost the same strategies to resolve and develop children’s conflict resolution skills. They reported that adult intervention (44.5%) was the main strategy commonly used, though agreed that perhaps the most effective one would have been to use pupils’ government (33.3%), and religious lessons (22.2%) to teach pupils the importance of apology and forgiveness. One of them made the following statement:

As a leader of this populace, I clearly understand and deeply appreciate the power of the words ‘sorry’ and ‘forgive me’. Therefore, I always emphasize that we teach our pre-primary children to use these words from the very beginning so that by the time they are adults should know how to handle their conflicts constructively and productively.

Parents revealed that the most common strategies to develop children’s conflict resolution skills were religious lessons (16.7%), school by-laws (50%), and African approach (33.3%). African approach strategy reportedly, refers to the assumption that elders and adults are custodians of the children entrusted to them. As such, teachers have a full control of whatever children do and/or behave while at school. They have unquestionable power over their subjects including interference in their affairs, such as resolving conflicts.

Home-enhanced strategies

In this sub-theme, school principals revealed to have in mind the provision of seminars and short course trainings for parents on how to work collaboratively with pre-primary schools. The aim was to establish a link of what was taught at school and home for well-rounded children’s development. Also, it was noted that school principals had established parents’ visiting days in view that it would help to inform parents what was happening at school. This would have informed parents what they were expected to do at home to improve their children’s learning and development.

Interviews revealed that, though with different approaches, teachers from the four schools had the same techniques and strategies in developing children’s conflict resolution skills. It was revealed that the most effective strategies used were pupils’ governments (30%), religious lessons to teach pupils on the importance of apology and forgiveness (27%), physical and verbal punishments (22%), close parent–school partnership (21%).

Furthermore, it was revealed that most parents adopted the strategy of listening to all parts involved in a conflict and administered physical and/or verbal punishments to wrong-doer(s) (35%), close parent–child relationship (23%), use of physical punishment (22%), and verbal punishment (20%). Physical punishments included canning, slapping, and hitting, while verbal punishment included yelling, warning, and threatening.

Policy-enhanced strategies

Analyses of documents revealed that ETP is contextually appropriate, in that it introduces peace management and conflict resolution studies into the curriculum (Policy statement 3.7.1). There was no mention of specific strategies to help naturalized refugee children develop conflict resolution skills in the working documents – Teachers’ lesson plans, meeting minutes of the school management team, and school boards. However, school principals revealed that, though not clearly stipulated in the working documents (Teachers’ lesson plans, meeting minutes of the school management team, and school boards), developing children’s conflict resolution skills was a critical issue which was clearly stipulated in the policy documents. However, about 50% of them suggested that ETP and other educational circulars should focus on enhancing effective and strong parent–school partnership, and close teacher–pupil relationship as better strategies to develop pre-primary children’s conflict resolution skills. On strong parent–school partnership, one school principal made the following remarks:

We work very closely with parents as the ETP requires whereby, we have PTA meetings every last Friday of the month. It provides an opportunity to discuss various plans and assess implementations of what we agreed on our last meeting. Discipline issue is a permanent agenda

On this sub-theme, teachers were of the views that the 2014 Tanzania Education Policy should focus on building strong parent–school partnership (41.7%), close teacher–pupil relationship (33.3%), and reasonable teacher–pupil ratio (25%) as critical strategies in developing naturalized refugee children’s conflict resolution skills. The existing education policy document requires that parents be involved through holding meetings, becoming members of pre-primary school committees, and sharing information about children’s progress by filling-in children’s progress forms. Furthermore, it requires that parents occasionally donate food and participate in fund-raising for school development. If properly done, this would have enhanced constructive working relationship among pre-primary stakeholders, which could result into development of various academic and social skills among preschoolers. However, this was not the case as revealed by one parent saying,

Theoretically, we are supposed to closely work with the pre-primary school, but practically we are not working very close. However, if all stakeholders could have been closely working together with schools, we would have helped our children learn various skills including to constructively resolving their conflicts

Discussion

Most common strategies used to develop naturalized refugee children’ conflict resolution skills

Given the traumatic mental and physical experiences of many naturalized refugee pupils, this approach should help them mend the deficit, and ease their integration into Tanzanian society. School principals, who are literally deemed educational policy-supervisors at school levels, used predominantly adult interventions in children’s conflicts. This suggests that at school levels, children were not entirely allowed to resolve their own conflicts, which would have equipped them with such skill as negotiations, compliances, and withdrawal (Edet, et al., 2017; Zacchilli et al., 2009).

Naturalized refugee parents were of the view that using pre-primary school by-laws and African approach to conflicts would have been an effective means to develop pre-primary children’s conflict resolution skills. While the former strategy may involve a form of compulsion, the latter is more of persuasion and concession (Hakvoort and Olsson, 2014; Kosić and Byrne, 2009; Kurdek, 1998). As such, there is minimal possibility for the two strategies to be used effective concurrently. And while by-law strategy might effective for children who had been involved in violence conflicts, African approach strategy may not be useful to such children (Viejo et al., 2015).

Pre-primary teachers and naturalized refugee parents favoured use of available established organs such as school governments and religious lessons. They shared the view of using physical and verbal punishments. Corporal and verbal punishments have been reported to be common in most pre-primary and primary classrooms in sub-Saharan context (Agbenyenga, 2006; Feinstein and Mwahombela, 2010). Consistent with other studies (Basogul and Ozgur, 2016; Madalina, 2016), the effectiveness of these strategies are unknown.

Challenges faced by stakeholders to develop naturalized refugee children’ conflict resolution skills

In the context of limited educational resources, strong parental-school relationship has been found to be the most effective strategy in maximizing children’s learning and development. This sub-theme was identified by all informants as one of the useful strategies in developing children’s conflict resolution skills. The effectiveness of this strategy depends on commitments and highly sophisticated and developed mutual trust between parents and school authorities (Kimaro and Machumu, 2015; Ndijuye and Rao, 2018a). However, in Tanzania, parental-school partnership is still weak (Kimaro and Machumu, 2015; Mtahabwa, 2010).

Though the existing Tanzania’s ETP clearly instructs teaching conflict management and resolution skills, the analysed working documents appeared less focused. This implies that teachers were not closely involved in the preparation of the existing educational policy (Ndijuye and Rao, 2018a). However, it is important to note that, though most naturalized refugees received verbal notification of their naturalization in 2007, their relocation (the second stage in the process of naturalization) was put on hold and, as of 2016, they had not legally been naturalized (UNHCR, 2016; U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, 2014).

This places them in a legal limbo as, in the process of naturalization, they had renounced their previous citizenship, meaning they legally belong to neither Tanzania nor their former homeland. However, because they have received verbal notification of their naturalization, they are no longer considered refugees, but do not yet enjoy civil rights, such as accessing compulsory and free high-quality pre-primary education, as legally naturalized Tanzania citizens.

Recommendations and conclusion

There is a need for the Tanzania’s Ministry of Education to include the aspect of conflict management and resolution skills in the curriculum for pre-primary teachers’ training. This can be done by exposing and familiarizing student-teachers with various strategies of handling and resolving children’s conflicts. It is equally important to introduce in-service training such as seminars and workshops for pre-primary school principals and teachers on how to develop children’s conflict resolution skills. Given the vital role of parent–school relationship in fostering children’s development and learning, pre-primary schools should establish a mechanism to coordinate activities for all stakeholders that forges a continuum of what pupils learn and do at home and school.

One of the most important issues regarding conflict is that, it is inevitable in everyday life. Conflict should not be regarded as a sign of incompetence, rather a legitimate aspect of human behaviour. It serves a useful function of stimulating creative solutions to problems. Therefore, since conflict is seen to have a greater influence on teaching and learning, it is in the interest of pre-primary children to have a clear plan and alternative strategies to develop pupils, teachers, and parents’ conflict resolution skills. Indeed, it is worth our curriculum time and policy review.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

This article is based on the original research conducted by the author.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author biography

Laurent Gabriel Ndijuye is a lecturer at the University of Dodoma, Tanzania with a passion for research in early years’ education. He has PhD in Early Childhood Education from the University of Hong Kong. His areas of research interests include Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), Early Numeracy and Literacy Acquisition Skills (ENLAS), Refugee Education (RE), Immigrant and Minority Education (IME), Equity and Social Justice in Education (ESJE).

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