The school and education system direction is that children’s acquire cognitive theoretical knowledge and develop working competence and various skills. However, for the development of the child as a social being this is not enough. In order to develop into a complete person children’s must develop the ability to resolve internal and external conflicts, enhanced by the conflicts of identity. These conflicts are an integral part of growing period of every child and adolescent. In this master thesis, I will therefore try to figure out how we can help children to resolve conflicts of identity. Focus of my study is beginning of two development phases, as indicated by the Erikson's theory of psychosocial development. First period is from 6 to 12 years, the time when children are entering the school. Second period is from 12 to 18 years, when children are leaving primary school.
In the theoretical part, I present how children in different periods resolving conflicts of identity. As a basis for determining these periods I chose the most rounded and dynamic theory of personal development, given by Erikson. Most often, conflicts occur because of the problems children have with the development of identity and self-esteem. Resolving these crises is very important and therefore is one of the main issues in social pedagogical work. Through social pedagogy, we have to find answer to a question; in what possible way we could support children to resolve their conflicts of identity. One possible way is with help of fairy tales.
In the theoretical part of master thesis, I show the importance of fairy tales as suitable and friendly resources to help children resolve conflicts of identity. Fairy tale addresses the child's personality as a whole, so it can help to overcome hardships, difficulties and problems. With its help it easier to establish contact with the children, allowing better accessibility and subsequently facilitate the implementation of socio-pedagogical intervention. In the theoretical part of master thesis, I show the possibility of using fairy tales in bibliotherapy, as part of socio-pedagogical intervention in primary school.
In the empirical part, I explore how to implement socio-educational intervention with the help of fairy tales with children, who are often distrustful and mostly conflict-oriented when they experience issues related to their identity, lack of confidence, inability to resolve conflicts with peers, attitudes towards parent’s attitude to school and teachers. One of the central issues I try to investigate is, can be fairy tale successfully used for resolving children’s internal conflicts at different age level when they enter the school at 6 years, and just before they leaving the school at 12 years.
For research purposes, I created a dedicated sample, which include the 1st grade class with 25 pupil and 8th grade with 24 pupil in the school year 2011/2012., 1st grade class with 25 pupil and 8th grade with 24 pupil in the school year 2012/2013., at selected primary school.
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