Mid Sweden University

Teachers work to solve conflicts between students on a day-to-day basis. In this challenging task, they are guided by various approaches to conflict resolution. Yet an increasing number of approaches available within the field of education has made it increasingly difficult to assert their legitimacy. Several studies suggest that Nonviolent Communication (NVC) may support interpersonal communication in schools. However, researchers have not treated NVC´s inner structures in much detail. This is problematic since researchers need to examine how approaches are structured before they can be properly studied empirically and practically. Therefore, this thesis sets out to explore the legitimacy of NVC as an approach to conflict resolution within Swedish schools. The research is based on a case study featuring the writings of the American psychologist Marshall Rosenberg, creator of NVC. Results show that NVC´s inner structures span across a spectrum ranging from flexibility to standardization, creating an unsystematic mixture of assumptions. At the flexible end, its structures permit a range of interpretations of a single conflict situation while also incorporating many situations. At the standardized end, its structures narrow the number of interpretations down to a single interpretation while also limiting the range of situations accounted for. This puts NVC´s legitimacy in jeopardy and at risk of being replaced by more consistent approaches to conflict resolution.