Social Studies Students' Perception on the Use of Collaboration as a Mechanism in Conflict Resolution and Management in Colleges of Education in North-central, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed social studies students’ perception on the use of collaboration as a mechanism in conflict resolution and management in Colleges of Education in North-central, Nigeria. A sample size of 3.35% of the entire student population was drawn and a ten-item researcher-made close ended structured questionnaire was drawn along 4-point Likert-scale of SA = Strongly Agreed (4 points); A = Agreed (3 points); D = Disagreed (2 points); and SD = Strongly Disagreed (1 point) were made to analyse students views on the effects while a t-test ANOVA was used to measure the perception of the social studies students on the use of collaboration as a tool for managing the conflicts with the reliability index of 0.05. The study revealed that there is significant difference in the perceptions of students on the use of collaboration as a tool in conflict resolution and management with the probability value (p) of 0.001 which is less than the alpha level of significance (p < 0.05). As a result, the null hypothesis was rejected, which indicates that in spite that students agreed in the use of collaboration as a technique in conflict resolution and management. However, some of the students still believes that the use of the technique is ineffective without the involvement of other techniques such as compromise, accommodation and avoidance. The study recommended that the college management should be Open, transparent, and ensure timely communication to stakeholders on issues surrounding the colleges; they should be able to create trust, confidence, fairness, and mutual respect among the stakeholders; they should be willing to adopt a collaborative method in conflict resolution rather than authoritarian approach; they should be able to create  inclusiveness of stakeholders during decision making processes in the colleges; and they should be able to create equitable power balance and fairness among the stakeholders.