Making Meaning of Conflict: A Qualitative Inquiry in Two Preschool Classrooms

This qualitative study was conducted to examine the phenomenon of conflict as a relational process as it is played out in the natural settings of two classrooms. It seeks to explore the developmental potential that conflict affords children as they try to make meaning of their relationships within the peer culture. It breaks away from the cyclical and linear models of conflict interactions as it tries to under­stand the reciprocal role of individual and culture in the initiation, sustenance, and resolution of peer conflicts. The study was designed to explore the researcher role as participator and observer on a continuum with participant at one extreme and observer on the other. Data for the study were collected through participant observations. Interpretive analysis of these disputes helped to embed the interactive events in their historical and sociocultural contexts. The results of this study increase our understanding of the developmental aspects of conflict and give us a glimpse of the meaning children make of their disputes.