Conflicts form an essential part of human life, interpersonal interaction and communication. They are therefore a common part of daily work life.However, conflicts can be dealt with using a wide variety of approaches: This may vary from being merely offended up to taking them as a chance: to change the current situation, an existing system or even one's own personality. There is a precondition for the ability to consider conflicts as part of day-to-day life and to see their potential for personal development: The individual must learn to reflect not only his own coping strategies when dealing with conflicts but also the underlying acting motives and behavioural pat-terns (cf. Coser 1965; Dahrendorf 1961; 1996; Kriesberg 1973).In workplace conflicts the power gradient is a key factor between all parties involved: it is mirrored in common assumptions about conflicts and the according coping strategies. Very often, causes and consequences of workplace conflicts tend to be mingled. This might result in real disadvantage of one of the acting parties (cf. Glasl 1992; Pikas 1974).When approaching vocational education policy, research and the theory and practice of training and education it is common to do so from an external perspective. Non-concerned and so-called neutral third parties research, treat and judge on disadvantage. This does not only result in well-founded insights and efficient promotion strategies to handle this problem. It also leads to a partial perspec-tive and a mixture of reasons and consequences of disadvantage (cf. Fraser 1997; Stevens/ Bur/ Young 1999). This presentation aims to provide an introduction into the current academic discourse on the issue. It will then move to show how the deficits in the understanding of "disadvantage" originate from the exclusive fixation on external perspectives.It will contrast this using the findings of a case-study on strategies in dealing with workplace con-flicts: This allows us to draw conclusions regarding common prejudice and coping-strategies from the perspective of prospective VET teachers. The case-study was carried out at the University of Darmstadt (Germany) in 2004. It was designed to focus on consciously challenging and reflecting the participants' own ways of handling conflicts.Based on this background, the presentation aims to a) reflect common approaches to workplace conflicts and coping-strategies, b) present the findings of a case-study on work-place conflicts of VET teachers and finally to c) reflect common ways of dealing with causes and consequences of conflicts as well as the opportunities that arise when changing the perspective. LiteratureCoser, Lewis A. (1965): Theorie sozialer Konflikte. Leuwied: Luchterhand.Dahrendorf, R. (1961): Gesellschaft und Freiheit. Zur soziologischen Analyse der Gegenwart. München: Piper.Dahrendorf, R. (1996): Zu einer Theorie des sozialen Konflikts. In: Bonacker, Thorsten: Konflikttheorien. Eine sozialwissenschaftliche Einführung mit Quellen. Opladen: Leske und Budrich.Fraser, N. (1997): Justice Interruptus. Critical Reflections on the "Post socialist" Condition, New YorkGlasl, F. (1992): Konfliktmanagement. Ein Handbuch zur Diagnose und Behandlung von Konflikten für Organisationen und ihre Berater. 3. Auflage. Bern: Haupt.Kriesberg, L. (1973): The sociology of social conflict. Englewood Cliffs/New Jersey: Prentice Hall.Pikas, A. (1974): Rationale Konfliktlösung. Heidelberg: Quelle und Meyer.Stevens, A./ Bur, A.-M./ Young, L. (1999): Partial, unequal and conflictual: problems in using par-ticipation for social inclusion in Europe, Kent