Methods – Conflict resolution, world café, deliberation forum

Conflict resolution:

Conflicts between persons or groups of persons should be dealt with in a systematic way. They offer important learning opportunities in democratic citizenship, as students can learn that conflicts belong to social life but can be resolved by taking the interests of both parties into account.

A standard conflict resolution procedure (usually applied with students):

1. The whole group obtains approval from opposing parties to resolve their conflict.
2. The conflict is described by every person involved in the conflict
3. The conflict is analyzed and interests and needs are clarified.
4. The group tries to switch perspectives and shows empathy with all parties to the conflict.
5. The group searches for solutions (e.g. through brainstorming)
6. The persons involved in the conflict consider the solutions (helpful, realizable) and choose some.
7. The persons involved in the conflict reach an agreement.
8. The persons involved in the conflict (together with the help of the group) plan how to imple-ment the agreement (who, what, when, how)

World Cafe:

The world cafe is a method for hosting a large group dialogue and can be useful for a variety of needs. This method is well-suited for solving difficult problems or answering complex questions to-gether with many people. It fosters the usage of collective intelligence and supports the expression of different opinions, ideas or solutions. The website (www.theworldcafe.com) provides you with all the necessary information about the method.

Deliberation forum:

This method has proven to be well suited for students but can also be applied with adults. It aims to develop a deep understanding of an issue and to illustrate a potential change in attitudes following deliberation: First, you hand out a short questionnaire (usually closed questions) to the participants asking for their attitudes about the issue in question, e.g. the integration of refugees. In the second step, the participants obtain well-balanced information about the issue. In a plenary session (third step), various experts and interest groups from the school community can be invited to present their arguments and attitudes to the participants. Fourth step: the participants are divided into various groups and develop questions to ask of politicians from different parties. Fifth step: in a second plenary session, the politicians may react to the questions within a set time limit. In the end, every participant fills in the questionnaire from the beginning again. The questionaires are anonymous but labelled with a code. This way, it is possible to show changes in people’s attitude.

Note:

If you do not manage to organize every step, e.g. inviting all the experts or politicians, you can also skip or change a step, for example by substituting participants for experts. These participants should be informed in detail about an issue, or they adopt the position of a specific interest group)

Sources : www.theworldcafe.com