Conflict is certain to show up in any school, so how do you as the leader know how to respond or when to intervene? Disagreements, friction, and even outright hostility are a common and unavoidable result of people working together, and not all conflict is necessarily bad; it can also provide an opportunity to learn and grow. Whether the situation…

School principals may experience stress due to interpersonal clashes and conflicts, excessively taxing administrative responsibilities, time constraints, and conflicting role expectations. Stress-reduction techniques include conflict resolution of values and needs; identification of stressful circumstances; knowledge of physiological stress…

The author presents ideas on what the school administrator should know in order to successfully manage conflict situations so that the conflict does not impede school functioning, and suggests that proper handling of the inevitable conflict situations that arise can bring about group cohesiveness and unity. (KC)

The Principal's Legal Handbook contains information and recommendations for practice in four areas. Section 1, "Students and the Law," yields interesting and informative answers on a number of issues related to students and the law: recent issues in schools relative to students' rights; the use of technology; and the latest case law and…

Chapter 15 of a revised volume on school leadership, this chapter defines and categorizes conflict and outlines techniques for its management in schools. Conflict, endemic to human existence, exists on many levels and assumes various forms. This chapter focuses on social conflict, or antagonistic interaction between individuals or groups common to…

Discusses leadership styles in two distinct situations--cooperative and counteractive. Effective leadership in cooperative situations depends on productivity, satisfaction, and cohesion in problem solving. Counteractive situations demand a political leadership style at home with coalitions, bargaining, persuasion, and coercion. Dynamic leadership…

Offers ten tips intended to help administrators make decisions and resolve conflicts. (Author/JM)

This paper attempts a description of some of the problems principals face, along with suggestions for solving them. The main focus is on discipline and dealing with student misconduct, but relations with parents, teachers, and police are also considered. (Author/SJL)

Few school principals receive training on how to handle problems with parents. Strategies that principals can use for dealing with such problems are presented in this book. Chapter 1 describes the parents of today's children and discusses the critical issues that cause misunderstandings in schools. Next, strategies for defusing parents who are…

This guidebook uses a question and answer format to recommend ways by which principals can manage 48 "conflict points" that often occur in a school setting. A preface describes conflicts as being natural and pervasive in the secondary school context. Although the principal is regarded as the responsible agent to reduce dissonance, the challenge…

Presents suggestions to help teachers who must work with difficult principals, offering 10 ideas for how to make meetings with such principals more effective. The paper also notes what to do if the principal is unreachable and describes how four teachers handled their own problems with difficult principals. (SM)

A fundamental aid in maintaining equilibrium is establishing a policy of providing the opportunity for the study of controversial issues, rather than teaching the issues per se. Other tips for managing controversy include anticipating controversy and criticism and establishing procedures for processing issues. (MJL)

School principals are regularly confronted with conflicting priorities and perplexing dilemmas. This book shares some of the sense that practicing principals have made of their own complex work. Arguing that there are no textbook solutions to most school problems, the book proposes looking at leadership as a quest. It identifies seven persisting…

Teacher education programs are rapidly changing to ensure that pre-service teachers are well prepared to successfully conquer the critical issues they will encounter in K-12 public schools. The major issue influencing teaching and learning is school violence and the lack of a sense of peace and caring in educational institutions. The educational…

Designed to help school business managers understand management-labor relations, this handbook outlines a managerial approach to negotiations designed to protect the local educational agency's needs. The principles and philosophy of negotiations as well as its legal setting are presented in the introduction and first two chapters. Chapters 3, 4,…