To prepare students for future challenges as citizens and to provide the knowledge necessary for science education studies, socio-scientific inquiry-based learning (SSIBL) is one possible approach. SSIBL pedagogy differs in emphasis and approach from traditional content-focused teaching and proves challenging for many teachers. The curriculum for the Swedish upper-secondary course Science Studies has a strong focus on students’ development of action competence, and this study aims to characterise teachers’ views of students’ active citizenship after a year-long online collegial TPD on SSIBL. The questions asked are “how do teachers view conflicts of interest and practices in taking action as learning tools for active citizenship” and “what are the teachers’ views/motives underlying their approaches and choices when teaching about action competence”. Eight teachers from two schools, i.e. two independent courses, were interviewed after participating. Data was analysed using thematic and theory-driven analyses. Results show that all teachers position students in situations where they take part in conflicts of interest. Some teachers used conflicts of interests to let students find arguments for and against something, and other teachers created situations where more than two perspectives of an issue were represented and students enacted a role. Teachers highlight that they want students to understand that questions are complex, and that active choices are important in life. Many of the teachers let students individualise their ideas by, within the SSIBL work, reflecting on the hypothetical question “what can I do as an individual”. Reasons teachers give for schools’ role in developing action competence include personal reasons such as it is important for students themselves to develop these competences for life, and global reasons such as this is needed for the planet to survive. Even if teachers did not actively encourage students to take action in everyday life, many students appeared to develop active citizenship.