The teachers' personality factors on classroom conflict management

The study aimed to understand the predictive impact of the five factors of teachers' personalities (neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and responsibility) on conflict management in the classroom. The variables of gender, service time and academic training of teachers were also studied when they were related to personality dimensions. The NEO-Five Factors Inventory, the Rahim-II Organizational Conflict Inventory -Portuguese Version in the School Context, and a personal and professional data sheet were used as instruments, in a sample of 659 basic education teachers in Portuguese schools. Using a structural equation model, the results showed an association between all the variables under study. Neuroticism and responsibility are the best predictors of conflict management. The female gender is the one that presents the best results in all dimensions of personality. Teachers with more academic training showed less neuroticism, but were more extroverted, open to experience, agreeable, and responsible, and those with more seniority showed less neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, and agreeable. These results will constitute a mobilizing engine of more substantive pedagogical practices for the advancement of education.