The participants were also asked what they do to ensure that the discussions about controversial topics go smoothly and peacefully. There was an agreement between the tutors that discussions do not necessarily need to be peaceful, rather meaningful. This is how Marcella saw it:

 

Ulrich emphasised the importance of regarding conflicts as inherent and sometimes even beneficial, and Ingrid also put forward an argument for regarding them as a natural part of learning about controversy:

 

In connection with how they handle these conflicts during discussions, they mentioned various techniques: Marcella invites other students to join the discussion and say what they think about the problem, Fred promotes active listening and makes sure everyone has the opportunity to say what is on their mind, and Ulrich tries to handle the situation with the group and encourages them to accept that there might be no solution, only a deeper understanding of an issue. Based on their own experiences, Fred, Marcella and Ulrich said that if there was a huge misunderstanding, name-calling, or somebody crying in class, they dealt with the problem after class, privately with the students in question. Ingrid also managed to think back to two critical moments when she addressed a difficult issue in class. In one of the cases, her students were “shooting very racist comments” (T/FG-TT-10), which she took personally and told the group that she was going to leave because these comments were hurtful for her friends and family members. The students apologised, convinced her to stay, and stopped expressing racist comments. In the other case, one of her students got offended by an advertisement she had shown to the group and started crying. She also addressed the issue in front of the group and tried to offer the student some consolation by acknowledging her feelings but also saying that that was only an image and an interesting controversial topic. In connection with students who may feel hurt during class because of a sensitive topic, both Marcella and Ulrich said that it is important to let them know that the class is a safe space, and they should not feel pressured to participate if they do not want to. When it comes to handling such difficult situations, Ulrich posited that it is important to trust one’s intuition to find the right way of handling these issues.

Even though the participants tend to manage conflict rather differently in the classroom, they agree that conflicts are not necessarily evil. When encountering conflict, they either discuss it involving the whole group or only the students involved in the conflict, while reassuring the students that they can talk about their feelings in the safe space the classroom provides.