Our browseable glossary of terms related to conflict resolution in education provides quick access to terms you may hear used in the field.

Another useful tool for understanding more general education-related terms is the ERIC thesaurus.

• Emotions

  Definition: the feelings that motivate us to act in all facets of life

  Related term(s): feelings

• Empathy

  Definition: the ability to feel what someone else is feeling

  Related term(s): Emotional perspective taking

• Empathy communication

  Definition: Non-defensive communication that shows you can understand the other person's experience

• Endorsement

  Definition: confirming behavior that sends the message, ",The way you are feeling is okay,", or ",The way you are perceiving is okay.

• Equality communication

  Definition: Non-defensive communication that treats the other person as an equal

• Ethnocentrism

  Definition: the belief that one's culture is the center of everything and therefore superior to other cultures. Encourages people to apply the norms and standards of their own culture when judging other cultures: ",This is the way we do it, so this is the way everyone should do it.",

  Related term(s): Cultural arrogance

• Evaluation communication

  Definition: Defensive communication that judges the other

  Related term(s): Criticism

• Expertise power

  Definition: Influence we have because of a general area of expertise or knowledge we have, like computer programming

• Face

  Definition: Goffman's notion of the self we want to present in interaction

  Related term(s): Identity, self-presentation

• Face work

  Definition: ongoing, yet often implicit process of trying to present our ",face", in interactions

  Related term(s): Impression management, identity negotiation

• Facilitate emotional reappraisal

  Definition: a process of elicitive questions and conversation that enable people to change the way they experience a situation and, by doing so, change how they feel about it

  Related term(s): Emotional coping

• Facilitator

  Definition: A third party who focuses on re-establishing communication between disputing parties but who does not become involved in substantive issues

  Related term(s): conciliator

• Forgiveness

  Definition: no longer being upset with someone because of what he or she did

• Frame of reference

  Definition: our view of the world and the assumptions we make about reality as shaped by our prior experiences

  Related term(s): Point of view, perspective

• Functional conflict

  Definition: a conflict where both parties are pleased with the process and outcome of the conflict management

  Related term(s): Healthy conflict, constructive conflict