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Chapter 7 Managing and Negotiating Disequilibrium and Conflict

Chapter 7 Managing and Negotiating Disequilibrium and Conflict. CD 42 Dr. Gallegos. Understanding Conflict. Forms of Conflict Inner Disequilibrium- everyone needs time to consider new information and perspectives

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Chapter 7 Managing and Negotiating Disequilibrium and Conflict

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  1. Chapter 7Managing and Negotiating Disequilibrium and Conflict CD 42 Dr. Gallegos

  2. Understanding Conflict • Forms of Conflict • Inner Disequilibrium-everyone needs time to consider new information and perspectives • Stakeholder Disagreements- the conflict is a resolvable difference in perspective related to issues of equity and bias. It might be the result of a misunderstanding, a lack of information, or a communicating breakdown between members of your community. • Opposition-when the conflict is opposition, the individual’s intent is to stop anti-bias change and question leadership, not to seek a resolution. • Identity and Emotions • Many stakeholder disagreement are rooted in cultural identity. • Understanding the role of identity in disagreement is critical, making it possible to perceive that what appear to be small issues may be rooted in a person’s worldview. • When changes challenge cultural values, people’s emotions come into play.

  3. Building the Foundation for Productive Conflict • Perception and Reality • You have to do a mental assessment and determine if your fears stem from a perceived or a real problem. • In some cases, a leader's (teacher’s) fears about what might happen tap into an internal struggle around a particular issue of diversity and bias. • Institutional Policies as a Starting Place • The intention is to improve clarity and transparency. • A program’s anti-bias mission statement also provides a reference point for discussing conflicts and searching for solutions. • The program leader can share how the anti-bias mission encourages teachers to be responsive to children’s observations of and questions about differences. • Power Dynamics • As program leader, you hold the most status and power by virtue of your leadership position and responsibilities for supervision, admissions, and policy development. • You have the task of leveling out power differences in discussions, s that all participants are part of the problem-solving.

  4. Turning Conflict into Growth Conflict among stakeholders about anti-bias work is not, in principle, about winners and losers. Finding win-win solutions to specific conflicts is always the first strategy. • Find the Third Space • Step 1: Acknowledge-to yourself that a cultural or values clash exists. You recognize the discomfort and other emotions the parties involved may be feeling and examine your own feelings. • Step 2: Ask-you collect information that will contribute to a greater understanding of what underlies the conflict. You talk to the parties involved and to any others you think will provide additional information. • Step 3: Adapt-you consider ways to adapt policies and practices in your program, taking into account the information gathered in the “acknowledge” and “ask” steps. • Affirm Nonnegotiable Values • A basic premise is that the anti-bias approach does not mean that all beliefs and values are acceptable.

  5. Turning Conflict into Growth Recognize Agreeable Solutions for Differing Conflicts: 1. The program leader or teacher understands and agrees to follow the solution preferred by the family member to maintain consistency with the family’s childrearing beliefs. 2.The family and program leader and/or teacher agree to an action that is a modification of what each of them does. 3. The family, upon understanding why a program or teacher uses a particular practice, approves the practice or decides to live with it.

  6. Turning Conflict into Growth Maintain the Values Basis of Anti-Bias Education Leaders need to be prepare for the misconception that anti-bias education means all beliefs and actions are acceptable. Practices that stereotype or discriminate against individuals because of their membership in particular groups are never acceptable in an anti-bias approach.

  7. Responding to Opposition As long as people are open to finding solutions, including living with a contradiction between a personal belief and a professional anti-bias value, then a program moves forward. Be Strategic-when you think and act strategically in response to conflict of this kind, it is manageable, even if it is also unpleasant. The conflict also becomes an opportunity to affirm the program’s commitment to anti-bias values and to be more visible about its efforts. External Opposition-opposition and even attacks may come from political organizations external to the program that oppose all forms of multicultural, anti-bias, and social justice education. Typically these oppositional groups are not interested in dialogue or negotiation with the groups or individuals they attack.

  8. Thoughtful Risk Taking The early childhood leader constantly assesses what needs to change, what can change, and how teachers and families will embrace and engage in making change that is lasting and significant. You use conflict productively as part of the change process, the leader takes a long-term view. This means being proactive instead of reactive, picking one’s battles, and prioritizing where to invest energy and resources.

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