Physical education teachers’ vision of conflicts in a multicultural school

This paper examines the opinions of physical education teachers regarding the social image of a multicultural school in terms of level of conflict. The teachers, who have more than five years of experience in primary schools with over 50% of foreign students, identify the conflicts that occur in the classroom and justify the main causes for them. The results were obtained using semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation, as well as data content analysis. After categorizing the different conflicts identified in the classroom, the teachers’ discourse demystifies the traditional image of a conflictive, multicultural school, and blames the characteristics of the social environment and the socioeconomic problems of families as the main cause for these conflicts rather than the cultural factors pertaining to the students themselves.