Learning to disagree – conflict orientation among Norwegian adolescents.

Conflicts are an inevitable part of any political process (Klofstad, Sokhey, & McClurg, 2013; Ulbig & Funk, 1999). Capabilities for political conflict is consequently an important part of citizenship education in contemporary societies, but little is known about how young people orient themselves towards political conflicts or how they can learn to disagree. Political discussions, argumentation and perspective taking has been in focus for some studies within citizenship research. Variation in conflict avoidance and adult citizens’ perspectives on political conflicts has also received some attention (Coffé & Bolzendahl, 2017; Hibbing & Theiss-Morse, 2002), but less has been done on how young people experience political disagreements. To better understand how schools can build capabilities and tolerance for political conflict, there is a need for more studies about the relationship between political conflicts and adolescents. This paper explores how Norwegian adolescents orients themselves towards conflicts over political and social issues. A survey among 500 Norwegian fifteen-year-olds has been conducted about their relationship with conflict and disagreements over political and social issues. The paper analyses how adolescents differ in their conflict behavior. Some finds conflicts very uncomfortable and tries to avoid them, other are concerned with finding a solution to the conflict, again others find enjoyment in meeting conflictual opinions. To see how schools can play a role, the paper studies how discussion of current political issues in classrooms impacts conflict behavior. Do regularly discussions of news have an impact, or a discussion climate where students often disagree with each other make a difference? The analysis further explores impacts from factors such as values and attitudes towards political conflicts, level of engagement in political issues, self-efficacy for political conflicts. Gender and socioeconomic background are also includes as control variables. This article argues that how schools facilitates discussions and helps citizens from an early age to learn how to deal with political conflicts, is of importance for their relationship towards both currant and future politics.