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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1407433
This article is part of the Research Topic Best Practice Approaches for Mixed Methods Research in Psychological Science - Volume II View all 8 articles

Focus group on conflict management in the classroom in Secondary Education in Costa Rica: Mixed methods approach

Provisionally accepted
Pedro R. Bonilla Rodrìguez Pedro R. Bonilla Rodrìguez 1,2*Immaculada Armadans Immaculada Armadans 3M. Teresa Anguera M. Teresa Anguera 4
  • 1 Universidad Estatal a Distancia, San José, Costa Rica
  • 2 Independent researcher, San José, Costa Rica
  • 3 University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
  • 4 Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The educational system in Costa Rica, as regulated by Law #7727, which governs Alternative Conflict Resolution and Promotion of Social Peace. must consider the interplay of various factors influencing classroom conflicts and the management strategies employed by teachers. Consequently, it becomes imperative to identify the most effective conflict resolution practices applicable within this context. To achieve this, a thorough procedure based on mixed methods was employed to analyze and interpret both classroom conflict behaviors and teachers' strategic responses.This study employed an indirect observational methodology, from a mixed methods approach. Data was collected through a focus group comprised of teachers.Following the connect framework, the procedure was conducted in three phases: QUAL-QUAN-QUAL.Two analytical techniques were implemented. A lag sequential analysis was employed used to explore potential behavioral patterns. The results of this analysis informed a polar coordinate analysis, which generated a visual representation of the relationships between codes.A focus group addressed four questions, yielding satisfactory data quality control results (kappa values: 0.80, 0.77, 0.76, 0.82).In polar coordinate analysis, the 37 observational instrument categories were designated as focal behaviors. Each of the 37 analyses treated all categories as conditioned behaviors.The analysis identified 342 activation/inhibition relationships between focal and conditioned behaviors. Of these, 195 were statistically highly significant, distributed across quadrants: Quadrant I (106), Quadrant II (36), Quadrant III ( 16), Quadrant IV (36).Significant gaps in understanding of conflict were identified, along with disparities in the resources and competencies necessary for successful conflict resolution among the observed educators. Specifically, teachers frequently employed techniques informed by intuition rather than deliberate strategy learned in their training. Consequently, the study advocates for enhancing teachers' cognitive and emotional competencies to optimize conflict management within the classroom and bolster their adaptive coping mechanisms.

    Keywords: focus group, Observational methodology, Observation instrument, mixed methods, conflict management, Behavioral relationships

    Received: 26 Mar 2024; Accepted: 26 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bonilla Rodrìguez, Armadans and Anguera. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Pedro R. Bonilla Rodrìguez, Universidad Estatal a Distancia, San José, Costa Rica

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