Conflicts in organisations are inevitable. For conflict to be managed and transformed appropriately one needs to be aware of the causes of these conflicts. This study was necessitated by a realisation that heads of schools used short-fix interventions to conflicts. Teachers also used short-fix interventions to conflicts. The state of affairs affected negatively teaching, learning and peace in the primary schools. The study focused on the causes of conflict in the primary schools in a bid that appropriate interventions could therefore be established. The sample of the study consisted of 134 teachers, 120 children and one District School's inspector for the district under study. The sample was purposively chosen. A qualitative research methodology was employed. A case study design was adopted. The major findings of the study were; shortage of resources, dictatorship, competition, gossip related to teachers and name calling, bullying, stealing, unfair treatment, abuse, hatred and rudeness related to pupils. The causes of conflict did not differ between urban and rural areas. Some of the recommendations were; that schools in clusters were to pool resources, schools were to practise multicultural education and inter-faithism and schools were to establish a cooperative context.

The Early Reading Initiative (ERI) in Zimbabwean primary Schools was necessitated by early learning gaps that negatively affect performance at grade 7 and O level in Zimbabwe which is attributed to incompetency in reading by learners inherited from early grades. Reading competency is a fundamental skill which should be systematically organised for learners to master the necessary pre-reading skills during early learning grades and throughout the primary school years. Zimbabwe is presently implementing a Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics curriculum reading ability is crucial to the implementation of this curriculum. The study was aimed at establishing the implementation of the components of the ERI programme. The study was necessitated by need to establish implementation problem areas so that corrective actions could be undertaken. The sample consisted of Early Childhood Development teachers 7 (ECD), 6 grade one teachers and 5 grade 2 teachers who were purposively chosen. A qualitative paradigm was adopted. A case study design was employed. Lesson observations, in-depth interviews and documents analysis were undertaken. The major findings were that components for the programme were appropriate, most of the components were not excellently implemented and the amount of support given to teachers in the implementation of the programme was quite adequate. Some of the recommendations were that, individual components without fidelity of implementation were to be attended to through staff development sessions, individual teachers with specific problems in implementing certain components to be identified as individual assistance is to be offered to them at school or cluster level.

The purpose of the study was to establish the adequacy of the Teaching Practice observation instruments for the Post Graduate Diploma (PGDE) of the ZOU. The instrument was studied in terms of how it addressed before lesson delivery activities, during lesson activities, after lesson activities and personal dimensions. The sample consisted of 16 supervisors and 19 student teachers conveniently sampled. A qualitative research methodology was adopted. The study established that the instruments generally had most issues but mark allocation needed separation, the instruments, could not be attended to objectively in the single lesson of supervision. It was recommended marks should be debunched, a variety of instruments attending to certain areas be used and the supervision time to be increased.

The study was aimed at establishing the effect of religion and culture on effective teaching, learning and peace. It was a follow up study of a similar study undertaken in Gweru District primary schools. The study was qualitative and used a case study design. The study was informed by ethnography. The sample for the study consisted of 93 teachers, 60 primary school children, 1 District schools' inspector and 2 conflict resolution experts. The respondents were conveniently chosen in the mean while conflict resolution experts were chosen by snow-balling. The findings were that ethnocentrism and xenocentrism was rampant, negatively affecting effective teaching, learning and peace in the primary schools. It was also found out there was no religious and cultural appreciation impacting negatively on teaching, learning and peace. Fundamentalism also exists. It was recommended inter-alia that multicultural education and inter-faithism be introduced in the primary school system.

The purpose of education is to address societal problems. Conflicts in schools like in any organization are inevitable. If these are not managed and transformed they affect negatively learning, teaching and peace in schools. There is therefore, need to manage and transform conflicts in schools. Imparting conflict resolution skills is both imperative and necessary in schools and teacher educational colleges. The study was sparked off by a realization that conflict management and transformation was downplayed in teacher educational colleges resulting in the absence of programmes aimed at addressing this very important area. The study focused on establishing the curriculum that was to be exposed to student teachers in teacher educational colleges in a bid that these students could subsequently impact the knowledge, skills and attitudes into their pupils when they completed their training. The sample for the study was 20 student teachers and 10 teacher educational college lecturers who were purposively chosen. A qualitative research methodology was employed. A case study design was adopted. The major findings of the study were that the teacher educational college curriculum covers much of the areas on conflict resolution, the teacher education curriculum however, does not cover areas such as mediation, ethics and good manners, interdependence of nations, bullying, cooperative learning academic controversy, methods used in teaching students adequately, assessment was largely norm-referenced and schools did not do areas of the Health and Life skills as in colleges. The study recommended that the teacher educational college curriculum was to cover left out areas, assessment was to be criterion-referenced, the school curriculum was to be in sync with the teacher educational curriculum.