WORDS OF ENGAGEMENT (WE): AN INTERGROUP DIALOGUE PROGRAM

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WORDS OF ENGAGEMENT (WE) AN INTERGROUP DIALOGUE
PROGRAM

• Facilitator Orientation Development
• Ms. Gloria Bouis, Associate Director
• Mr. Mark Brimhall-Vargas, Assistant Director
• Dr. Christine Clark, Executive Director
• Ms. Sivagami Subbaraman, Assistant Director
• Materials for Selected Slides from Nagda and
  Zúñiga

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Practice

• Story About Your Name(s)

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INTERGROUP DIALOGUEDefinition

• Intergroup dialogue is a facilitated,
  face-to-face encounter that strives to create new
  levels of understanding, relating, action between
  two or more social identity groups who have a
  history of conflict or potential conflict.
• (From Nagda Zúñiga)

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INTERGROUP DIALOGUEDefinition

• A face-to-face meeting between members from two
  (or more) different social groups that have a
  history of conflict or potential conflict. The
  groups are broadly defined by race, ethnicity,
  gender, sexual orientation, ability, religion,
  socio-economic class and other social group
  identities. Participants engage in a
  semi-structured process to explore commonalities
  and differences, intergroup conflicts and
  possibilities for alliance and coalition building
  for social justice action. The dialogues occur
  over an extended period of time and are
  facilitated by trained peers.
• (From Nagda)

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INTERGROUP DIALOGUEDefinition

• A social justice approach to dialogue
  foregrounds 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 existent
  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.
• (From Nagda)

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INTERGROUP DIALOGUEFormats

• Intergroup/Intragroup
• Issue Specific/Group Specific
• Emergent Theme
• Story Circles
• Other Names (Study Circle, Culture Circle,
  Bi-Communal Dialogues)

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INTERGROUP DIALOGUE Discussion and Debate

• Debate
• Listening to gain advantage
• Discussion
• Serial Monologuing
• Dialogue
• Listening for understanding

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Feedback

• What Students Want

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Practice

• Hopes and Fears Facilitation/Co-Facilitation
  Skills Development Activities

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INTERGROUP DIALOGUEModels

• Democracy
• Finding common ground vs. Orchestrating a
  collective understanding
• Social Justice
• Impact of model on content vs. process
• Power and privilege vs. Privileging of oppression
  over everything
• Synthesis with a social justice PRACTICE focus

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INTERGROUP DIALOGUEStages

• Consciousness RaisingRelationship Knowledge
  Building
• Sustained DialogueSupport Challenge
• TransformationConflict Negotiation
• Building CommunityCollective Social Action

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INTEGRATING STAGES OF DIALOGUE INTO A CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK

• Conceptual Framework
• Nurturing dialogue and building relationships
  across differences
• Raising awareness about cultural differences,
  socialization and roles in systems of privilege
  and oppression
• Bridging differences and working constructively
  with conflicts
• Envisioning change, building alliances and
  taking action for social justice
• (From Nagda)

• Corresponding Stages
• Stage One Group Beginnings
• Stage Two Exploring Commonalities Differences
  in Experiences
• Stage Three
• Working with Controversial Issues Intergroup
  Conflicts
• Stage Four Envisioning Change Taking Action

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INTERGROUP DIALOGUEGround Rules

• Pre-conceived ideas
• What the research with our students taught us

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Mindset

• Why IDWhy do we do ID?
• What is the philosophy that underlies motivation
  to do ID?
• Connection between head and heart

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Mindset

• Self Awareness and Self Control
• Knowing self and community
• Motivation, values, beliefs
• Personal, cultural, political norms gt
• Stereotyping vs. Characterizing
• Detachment
• Facilitating vs. Teaching
• Judgement and Assumptions

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Mindset

• Facilitator as Catalyst
• Orchestrating a collective understanding vs.
  Reaching common ground
• Humility vs. Center of Attention
• Possibilities offered by ID
• ID vs. Serial Monologues

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Mindset

• Possibilities offered by ID
• Inherent opportunities manifest in
• Discussiongt Transformation gt Dialogue
• Agency and empowerment
• Creating and connecting a collective
  consciousness
• Facilitation as the connecting of dots balanced
  with self-exploration

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Mindset

• Possibilities offered by ID
• How a facilitators feelings/assumptions impact
  listening and other facilitation skills

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Mindset

• Be at a stage of personal identity development in
  relationship to the social identity salient to
  the dialogue that affords you the ability to
  skillfully challenge and affirm participants who
  are members of both your own and other identity
  groups in appropriate measure

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Mindset

• Be tuned into issues related to the dialogue you
  are facilitating that are highly charged
  triggers or flashpoints for you so they can
  effectively manage your reactions to those issues
  in ways that enhance the participants dialogic
  learning experience

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Mindset

• Possess an appreciation of student development
  theories and how students development in
  relationship to those theories may manifest in
  their dialogue participation and/or learning
  experiences

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Mindset

• Possess an appreciation for the similarities
  across and the differences between dialogue
  facilitation and classroom teaching

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Skills

• Content area knowledge
• Levels of knowledge and impact on manner of
  facilitation
• Content vs. Process
• Dialogic communication
• ListeningActive ListeningSilence/Inner Chatter

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Skills

• Positionality of facilitator and participants
• Support vs. Challenge (personal, academic,
  political)
• Create 3rd space
• Conflict negotiation
• Reframing/Summarizing

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Texture

• Suspending Judgment
• Explaining vs. Owning
• Intent vs. Impact
• Holding

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Texture

• Creating Third Space
• a place where participants bring first space or
  personal knowledge, ideas, and opinions and talk
  about them using second space or group
  knowledge, norms, and etiquette

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Logistics

• Handouts General Administrivia

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Logistics

• Program Evaluation Assessment

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Logistics

• Syllabus/First Day Cheat Sheet Review
• Grading Concerns
• WITH Co-Facilitator
• How
• What
• Alternative Assignments
• Holidays

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Logistics

• Online Registration System Login/Interface

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Logistics

• Credits
• Online Registration Testudo Registration
• Social Justice from Classroom to Community
• Class Time Conflicts
• Other

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Practice

• Simulated Dialogues
• Race
• Gender/Sex
• Religion, Spirituality, Faith, Secularity
• Sexual Orientation

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Practice

• Simulated Co-Facilitation Challenges
• Air Time
• Sharing Work Load/Grading
• Knowledge Base/Power Dynamics/Developmental Stage
• Activities