Participants will:
- Reflect on one’s own behaviour when in a conflict situation
- Become aware of one’s feelings when facing conflict
- Explore one’s own ways of dealing with conflicts
Participants will develop
- Understanding of their own and others’ behaviour in conflict situations
Before you start
Prepare some dice for the game. Print out the suggested statements from the IFM Peace Education Handbook (page 24, appendix 1, see downloads).
Materials
Dice.
What to do
- Explain that you are going to play a game to reflect on the way we react to and deal with conflicts.
- Each round, participants take it in turns to roll a die. Different numbers indicate a different method in the round:
- 1, 3 or 4 – Round of talk: Participants get into pairs. You read out a statement from the attached list. The participants should answer the statement and share it with their pair.
- 2 or 5 – Round of mime: You read out a statement. The participants have to think about a gesture or mime to show how they would complete the sentence. On your signal, everyone shows their mime at the same time.
- 6 – Round of sound: You read out a statement. The participants have to think of a sound to show how they would complete the sentence. On your signal everyone makes their sound. If it is too chaotic to all do it at once, you can have a quick round where everyone does their sound individually.
- After every round ask two or three participants to explain their discussion, gesture or sound.
Debriefing
- Were you surprised by some of your own answers or other people’s answers?
- Were you aware of your way of dealing with conflict? Why?
- How do people deal with conflicts?
- Do you deal with conflict differently when it is with someone you know and are close to, or someone you do not know? If so, how?
- What do you think are good ways to deal with conflicts?
Tips for facilitators
You can adapt the statements to your group, focusing on a particular kind of conflict that is important for your participants. For example, if gender issues are prominent in your group, you can discuss how gender may or may not influence the way individuals react or behave in conflict situations.
Suggested Statements:
I get angry when…
When I get angry, I…
When someone hurts me, I…
To calm down, I…
When I see people fighting, I …
Now I feel …
I like an argument, when…
When I am arguing with a good friend, I…
When I make up after an argument with a good friend, I…
When someone disagrees with me about something important, I usually…
When someone criticises me, I…
The worst thing about arguing is…
I try to avoid a conflict when…
When things are not going well, I want to…
For me, the best way to end an argument is…
I will sometimes avoid unpleasant situations by…
When someone shouts at me, I…
This method is an adaptation of ‘When I am in a conflict situation…’ taken from ‘T-Kit 12: Youth transforming conflict’ (Council of Europe and European Commission, October 2012.)