Teacher Conflict Management Styles Mobilize Student Social and Emotional Engagement to Sustain Academic Effort

Abstract

Conflicts in classrooms are a common occurrence in secondary schools and, if not properly handled, can affect the learning environment and motivation of learners. The aim of this study was to explore the direct and indirect effects of teacher conflict management strategies on student academic effort expenditure. The researchers used a cross-sectional design with quantitative data collection and involved a sample of 250 secondary school students in Pakistan in collecting survey data with an adapted 13-item survey with a common 5-point Likert scale. Using ordinary least squares regression analyses, it was found that the model of teacher conflict management style was a significant and positive predictor of student social and emotional engagement (β = 0.554, t = 10.613, p = < 0.001), accounting for 31.2% of the variance. The student engagement was then found to be the strong positive predictor of academic effort (β = 0.801, t = 16.137, p < 0.001), responsible for 51.2% of the variance in the outcome. Comparing student engagement to teacher conflict management, the direct path coefficient of student engagement was found to be partially mediating between the teacher conflict management and the academic effort (partial R² = .02). A final structural model accounted for 53.1% of the overall variance in student effort expenditure. The results show that constructive teacher conflict resolution is not just an administrative tactic used to maintain classroom control but a crucial relational process that indirectly maintains student academics by impacting on classroom emotional and social environments.

Keywords: Conflict management, Social engagement, Emotional engagement, Secondary Education.