Organizing and Conducting GOOD Discussions through Dialogue

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Organizing and Conducting GOOD Discussions
through Dialogue
Ratnesh Nagda School of Social Work
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WELCOME!!

• Welcome and Overview of session
• 3 critical questions for us
• What does a GOOD discussion feel like?
• What is dialogue and intergroup dialogue?
• How do we organize for effective dialogues?

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AN EXPANDED DEFINITION OF INTERGROUP DIALOGUE

• A social justice approach to dialogueforegrounds
  both societal power relations of domination-
  subordination, and the creative possibilities for
  engaging and working with and across these
  differences. Cultural differences are
  contextualized in historical and existant social
  power relations. The approach aims to move
  beyond seeing these differences as divisive, and
  to collectively generate newer ways of being
  powerful without perpetuating social
  inequalities, and building bridges for social
  change.
• Such an approach, therefore, can be used in mixed
  groups that are not defined along any particular
  social identities but allows for a consideration
  of different social positionalities.

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UW INTERGROUP DIALOGUE INITIATIVE

• Call for more courses focusing on racial and
  ethnic diversity
• Failed attempts to pass undergraduate requirement
• Innovations at departmental levels
• Demands from students for more substantive and
  meaningful engagement with issues of diversity
  and social justice
• Current initiative
• FIGs, Gateway courses, Early Fall Start
• Student and faculty leadership development
• On-going curriculum development, research and
  evaluation

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3 CRITICAL IDEAS FOR DISCUSSION DIALOGUE

• Analytical and Knowledge Lens
• Integration of multiple sources of knowledge, and
  conceptual and theoretical frameworks
• Conditions for discussion and dialogue
• Characteristics of learning environment that can
  provide meaningful participation and engagement
  (cognitive and affective)
• Processes for discussion and dialogue
• Learning, communication and interaction processes
  that can enable invigorating, respectful, honest
  and challenging reflection and dialogue

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DIALOGUE or DEBATE

• collaborative
• win-win
• listening to understand
• introspection
• searches for strengths
• open-ended
• connection

Dialogue

• oppositional
• win-lose
• listen to find flaws
• critique
• close-minded
• search for weaknesses
• separation

Debate
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WHAT IS DIALOGIC COMMUNICATION?

• An exchange of perspectives, experiences, and
  beliefs in which people speak and listen openly
  and respectfully. . . . In dialogue,
  participants speak as unique individuals about
  their own beliefs and experiences, reveal their
  uncertainties as well as certainties, and try to
  understand one another.

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WHAT IS DIALOGIC COMMUNICATION?

• a two-way communication
• seeks to ensure clarity in understanding
• strives to build on the on-going conversation
  instead of introducing completely different
  topics
• searches for the different threads in the group
  discussionsimilarities, differences, different
  levels, modes, and other ways of relating ideas
• affirming and supportive
• challenging

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BUILDING BLOCKS OF DIALOGUE
Suspension of judgment
Active(Deep)Listening
Reflection Inquiry
Identifying Assumptions
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SUSPENSION OF JUDGMENT
Developing an openness Being aware of our
judgments Holding them softly so you can hear
the other person
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DEEP LISTENING
Paying attention Focusing on the moment Not
getting lost in our own head trips
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IDENTIFYING ASSUMPTIONS
Peeling an onion to get to different levels of
understanding Making assumptions
explicit Being aware of what we dont say
because of our assumptions
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REFLECTION AND INQUIRY
Inquiry, coming up with questions based on your
reflection Inner reflection Being clear what
it means to you Slowing down, taking in whats
been said, thinking through
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What is your responsibility as a discussion
leader/ facilitator to foster a climate related
to each building block?
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SPIRAL MODEL OF ACTIVE LEARNING


5. Apply in action
4. Strategize next steps, practice skills, plan
for actions
2 Look for patterns and themes
1 Start with experiences of participants
3 Add new information and theory, readings,
analogies
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