---

DE-ESCALATION OF TENSION AND CONFLICT IN SOCIAL STUDIES CLASSROOM AN APPLICATION OF SOME SUGGESTED STEPS IN NIGERIAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Ekiugbo, Emoefe U. K. (Ph.D), Dada, S. O. (Ph.D), Adegboye, A. A. (Ph.D)

---

Download PDF

---

Abstract

Conflict is normal and inevitable in human society, schools inclusive. Handling conflict inclusively and non-violently is a hallmark of democracy. Conflict means to perceive and experience incompatible differences within the individual or between two or more individuals which may lead to some form of opposition. Conflict is a natural tension that arises from differences. Conflict occurs daily in everyone's life. Teaching about de-escalation of tension and conflict can help to make schools and community more peaceful and thus prepare students for the challenges of democratic citizenship. This article describes a curriculum unit used with a group of students in junior secondary schools in Nigeria, built around the key idea of not only understanding conflict but also steps that can be deployed to de-escalate tension and conflict in social studies classroom. It is not a primarily a conflict resolution training program per se, rather it is an integrated social studies, language and drama unit that presented that presented controversial scenes that are national in outlook in an accessible way in Nigerian Schools. The understanding of de-escalation of conflict thus developed was later applied to complex interpersonal conflicts such as bullying in the classroom setting.

 Keywords: De-escalation, Interpersonal Conflict, Conflict, Administration of Justice, Secondary Schools.