Building a conflict management strategy in service of improved teaching

Conflict management can be difficult for educators working remotely, but a strong strategy can help staff lean into conflict and come out stronger.

Schools and systems bring together professionals working together to provide strong learning and teaching practices to students, so building and developing a school or system’s culture is fundamentally about relationships (person-to-person, person-to-system). It’s helpful to have a conflict management strategy and to build your staff’s muscle to lean into conflict and come out of it as a stronger, more cohesive group.

Use this in order to…

• Support a diverse team of educators in effectively working together in a way that values different perspectives and emphasizes collaboration.

• Create space for addressing interpersonal dynamics.

• Strengthen relationships even in the midst of conflict.

“DEI work is ultimately about recognizing each other’s humanity. But so much can get in the way – oppression and conflict seem situated in our identities. Having strategies for resolving conflict can help us get back to seeing and valuing each other’s humanity and help our organizations get the benefit of diverse perspectives.” – Lavada Berger, Transcend

Key Components

• Identify or create conflict management strategies that are aligned with your school or system’s culture and are well-suited for the types of conflict you anticipate or are working to address.

• Gather feedback from staff across your organization and decide which conflict management strategy you will utilize for now. You can always adjust your strategy in the future.

• Consider how you’ll integrate this strategy into how your school or system operates (e.g., when you expect staff to use the strategy, what spaces you have available for practice, whether this will become an expectation or competency for all staff).

• Provide multiple opportunities for your staff to practice applying the strategy. Reflect on moments of conflict and consider how the team handled them.

Considerations for Remote Implementation

• Use a video communications platform. Due to the personal nature of the content, it’s important to use a video platform (e.g., Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype) so that you can see facial expressions and attend to other nonverbal cues. Each participant should have a camera and turn on their video if possible.

• Consider your meeting format. It can be helpful to have a few hours to grapple with your strategy and practice it. This could be a helpful exercise to initially launch at an in-person team retreat. If that is not an option, block out two to three hours for your staff to come together virtually and build in a spacious break following the discussion to let them have the mental and spiritual space to shift their focus.

The Remote DEI Collective was a collaborative group led by The Learning Accelerator (TLA), and brought together participants from remote organizations to address the challenges of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in remote environments. This strategy has been adapted from the Remote DEI Collective’s toolkit, which was built to offer resources to improve remote culture and practices, in order to better suit leaders and educators working for schools that offer virtual and hybrid learning options to students.