Observational Analysis of the Educational Management of Conflicts Between Young Children in the Emmi Pikler Nursery School Using Complementarity of Data Analysis

Abstract

Conflicts are inevitable in interpersonal relationships. In fact, they are usual in early childhood education centers and, thus, many educators consider them readily available educational tools, particularly valuable for children’s social development if they are constructively managed. In this research, we investigate the educational management of conflicts between young children at Emmi Pikler Nursery School in Budapest. In this early childhood education center, conflict is considered vital for children’s socialization, so the educational management of these episodes aims to support children’s resolution strategies and ultimately promote healthy socialization. The study objectives were: (1) to explore the details of the educator’s behavior in the different moments the conflict goes through; (2) to unravel the temporal distribution of the educational intervention; (3) to discover which behaviors from the conflicted children ―victim and instigator― trigger the intervention; and (4) to deepen in the effect of the intervention in children’s immediate behavior. We applied a systematic observation and used three complementary data analysis techniques to meet the objectives: Lag sequential analysis, T-Pattern detection and Polar coordinate analysis. Results indicate that the educator’s relational behavior is adaptive to the phases of the conflict and that there is a structured temporal distribution within them. Regarding children, particular behaviors from victim and instigator trigger the educator’s intervention and this intervention progressively leads to more adapted behaviors in conflicted children. In conclusion, the studied educational management of conflicts between children proves to be optimal in promoting children’s good behavior and in accompanying their socialization process.