Confrontation and Encounter

Confrontation

Encounter

A confrontation is a meeting between a teacher and a student who are in a conflict that does not end until the conflict is resolved. The teacher and student may continue to have different opinions, but they are respectful of each other’s point of view, and they listen to each other carefully. Examples of conflicts could include miscommunication, misinterpretation, or any unresolved feelings that make the student or teacher feel uncomfortable in the learning environment.

“The encounter… is a meeting of harmony, mutuality, and oneness… a sudden, spontaneous, intuitive meeting between teacher and child in which there is an immediate sense of relatedness and a feeling of harmony and communion.” (O’Hara p. 149, quoting Moustakas, 1966, p.22)

An encounter is a meeting between two people when a teacher and student experience an immediate connection based on mutuality, receptiveness, and honesty.