Rethinking the Concept of Racial or Ethnic Conflict in Schools: A leadership perspective

Abstract

Racial or ethnic conflict is often conceptualized as overt hostility such as fighting or name calling between groups defined as black, white, Asian, etc. In a study of school leaders who worked proactively to improve race/ethnic relations, the authors found that leaders' understandings of racial/ethnic conflict were far more complex, including an awareness of root causes or precursors of overt conflict as well as recognition of the many dimensions of student identity. Leaders who viewed conflict in these complex ways were able to develop proactive, rather than only reactive, approaches to addressing conflict and building positive interethnic relations.