Research from 1996 to 2019 on approaches to address conflicts in schools: A bibliometric review of publication activity and research topics

ABSTRACT

The numbers of publications within the field of research on approaches to address conflicts in schools is rapidly growing, and it is now important to map influential theories, methods and topics that shape this research field. In addition, student teachers, teachers and teacher educators would benefit from it being easier to find research-based knowledge of how to address conflicts in schools. Therefore, a bibliometric study was carried out on 1126 publications that were published between 1996 and 2019 in this field. The study aimed at examining publication activity, geographic spread, and dominant research topics. The findings showed a positive trend in publication output from 2006 onwards. Research output was found to be dominated by the United States. However, the results also indicated an internationalization trend expressed in an increased geographic spread of publication output. Furthermore, six research topics were identified through cluster analyses and labelled ‘peace and value education’, ‘classroom management from coercive discipline to relationship building’, ‘constructive conflict resolution’, ‘classroom management programmes’, ‘restorative justices and restorative approaches’, and ‘classroom challenges for teachers’. Within each research topic, a distinct number of publications were found that defined the core research.

KEYWORDS:

• Bibliometrics
• conflict resolution
• classroom management
• peace education
• schools

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The study is part of a research project supported by the Swedish Research Council: Rethinking Conflict: An investigation of how emerging conflicts can be utilized to promote learning under Grant number: 2014-2132</#award-id;Vetenskapsrådet; Vetenskapsrådet [2014-2132];

Notes on contributors

Ilse Hakvoort

Ilse Hakvoort, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in education at the Department of Education and Special education at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research interest is constructive conflict resolution education in schools. Central in her work is how conflict situations can become learning experiences for pupils and teachers. She is currently involved in a research project on escalated conflicts, threats and violence against teachers

Jonas Lindahl

Jonas Lindahl, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in library and information science at the Department of Sociology at Umeå University, Sweden. In his research, Jonas Lindahl examines factors that affect academic socialization and career development. In addition, he is interested in the information value of bibliometric indicators, e.g., citation rates and publication volume, in contexts of predicting scientific achievements.

Agneta Lundström

Agneta Lundström is a senior lecturer in education at the Department of Applied Educational Sciences at the University of Umeå. Her research and teaching focus has been conflict resolution in the teacher education, and professional meetings with students in socio-emotional difficulties. She lectures university teachers in how to create an open democratic atmosphere among students to promote learning from experiences.