Section outline

  • This short opening section introduces the course, its three soft skills and how the three hours are spent, and closes with an eight-item baseline self-check that records what you already think about conflict before the lectures start changing it.

    After completing this section, students will be able to:

    • Describe the scope, structure and workload of the course, and distinguish what it sets out to teach from what it deliberately leaves to other courses
    • Name the three soft skills the course develops, which are critical conflict awareness, reflexive positionality and ethical communication awareness, and recognise them as the thread running through the four units
    • Identify their own starting assumptions about conflict, power and neutrality, so that they can notice where the course challenges them