Role Conflicts in Special Education

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A PAPER ON THE THEME: ROLE CONFLICTS IN SPECIAL EDUCATION BY F.K. ADISAH Abstract The paper seeks to give complete and relative realistic account of special education administration by acknowledging the possibilities of conflict and how to assume that there is a large degree of consensus and few serious disagreements. This is true for much of the time. However, in some school for some of the times and in other schools for a large portion of the time, conflict, either open or hidden, is present. Introduction Roles have frequently been identified with the rights and duties of a person within a social system as determined in part, by various elements in society. At any given moment, the life of the individual may be conceptualized as array of roles which the individual plays in a distinct set of organizations and groups to which he belongs. The purpose of this paper is to provide a closer look at some of the substantive areas of role conflict between individuals and groups within the school settings and to suggest some strategies designed to prevent these conflicts in schools. The presentation is on: Roles Role confusion Role conflicts  Role conflicts in Special education: Causes.  Role conflicts: How to prevent them. What is a role? Cambridge international dictionary of English (1996) defines a role as the position of a person or group of people in a particular situation and the degree to which they are involved in it, on the duty or use which someone or something is expected or to perform or have. What is role confusion? This is where people in an organization criss-cross one another in the performance of their roles or duties due to lack of clarity in job descriptions or specifications. For instance, who is responsible for the purchase of food items for the school, is it the headmaster, the bursar or the matron?
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