Counselling Implications of Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Secondary Schools in Ebonyi State (Published)
The study investigated the counselling implications of conflict and conflict resolution in secondary schools in Ebonyi State. Specifically the study assessed the extent to which school principals adopt dialogue, arbitration, third party and sanction in conflict resolution in their schools. The population for this study consisted of all the principals of public Secondary Schools numbering one hundred and fourty-seven (147), and the entire population was used. Four research questions and one null hypothesis guided the study. The instrument for data collection was a four point modified likert-type questionnaire – conflict resolution assessment scale (CRAS), while the data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions and t-test for the hypothesis. The findings showed that while sanction was used to a great extent, dialogue, arbitration and third party were used to a low extent. Again, gender of principals does not significantly influence the type of conflict resolution method used. The counselling implications of the findings were outlined including: the fact that people have problems which should not be taken for granted or sub-summed in their conflict. Recommendations were also made for example that Government officials who relate with the school authority should also be involved in dialogue, arbitration and third party methods of conflict resolution instead of just using sanction as the only option.
Keywords: Arbitration, Conflict, Counselling, Dialogue, resolution, third party and sanction