Friday Afternoon, Session A
Dialogue for Action and Change: Case Studies on the Achievement Gap in Education
Nguyen Minh Chau, Maryland Vietnamese Mutual Association, Inc.
John Landesman, Study Circles Resource Center
Gwen Whiting, G. Whiting & Associates
Practitioners of dialogue are often searching for ways to make a difference on persistent community problems. In this session, organizers of community-wide study circles focusing on the educational achievement gap will tell their stories of how diverse, widespread dialogue is leading toward action and change in their communities. After hearing the panelists' experiences, participants will have the opportunity to talk about how dialogue on specific community issues might work in their particular settings. Participants in this session will learn about organizing strategies and will receive tools that they can put to use in their own communities.
Transformative Dialogue and the Power of Appreciative Inquiry
Kenneth Gergen, Taos Institute
Mary Gergen, Penn State University
We shall focus on practices of dialogue that enable alienated or hostile individuals or groups to locate means of viable (if not positive) co-existence. Our orientation toward this subject is, first of all, theoretical. That is, our hope is to identify and to understand the functioning of particular conversational practices that increase positive coordination among persons. We treat these practices as contributions toward a more general theory of transformative dialogue. To illustrate, we shall focus on Appreciative Inquiry as a model practice. Appreciative Inquiry is perhaps the central dialogic practice featured by our work in the Taos Institute. This practice is characterized by its 1) abandonment of "problem talk," 2) focus on narrative exploration, 3) emphasis on positive explorations of the past, 4) the collaborative construction of alternative futures, and 5) the reconstruction of identities and relationships. A brief demonstration will focus on the process of dialogue itself.
Local, National and International Projects based on the National Issues Forum Model
Jim Knauer, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania
Harris Sokoloff, University of Pennsylvania Center for School Study Councils
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| The conference's 56 breakout sessions allowed participants to experience a variety of wonderful dialogue models and explore many of the key questions facing our field. |
The model for public issue deliberation developed by the Kettering Foundation, Public Agenda and the National Issue Forum Institute is used in a variety of settings across the country and around the world. This approach to community deliberation and action begins with framing an issue in public (not expert) terms to capture the diversity of citizen concerns. The resulting framework presents three or four perspectives for consideration. Trained neutral moderators help groups weigh the pros and cons of various courses of action and establish/uncover common ground for action that honors their differences. This discourse model is used in communities to increase the capacity for citizen action, in high school and college classrooms to support student engagement and intellectual development and in organizations to promote strategic thinking and organizational learning. Participants in this session will gain an experiential and theoretical understanding of this dialogue model and learn about numerous opportunities to collaborate with the existing network.
Where Do We Go From Here? Growing the Nascent Deliberative Democracy Movement
Carolyn Lukensmeyer, AmericaSpeaks
Martha McCoy, Study Circles Resource Center
Michael Weiksner, E The People
Practitioners, academics and government officials from around world gathered this summer in Washington, D.C. to form the Deliberative Democracy Consortium - a coalition dedicated to growing the nascent, broad-based movement to promote and institutionalize deliberative democracy at all levels in the United States and around the world.
This facilitated dialogue will explore the steps that must be taken to develop a national infrastructure that will support deliberative democracy around the country. It will highlight the most exciting work going on around the world in the field and the areas in greatest need of further research and innovation.
New York City Community Building Model & International Peacemaking Model
Carlos Garcia and Grace Yun, InterRelations Collaborative
Ana Ofelia Rodriguez, Broadway Housing Communities, Committee of the Heights Inwood Homeless
Presentation of this cross-cultural model will demonstrate how cultural or other social groups represented in balanced proportions ("matching groups") in a Multicultural Laboratory creates an environment in which these diverse groups can come together, interact, and discover the common ground that they share. A multimedia presentation will show how this student-driven model was developed at the college level and expanded for high school and junior high populations. This model was recently introduced in NYC to build cross-cultural understanding following a series of racial incidents in a local community. In the face of terrorist events of 9/11 unleashing waves of fear and prejudice and resulting in a dramatic rise of ethnic and racial intolerance, this model is now being introduced in peacemaking efforts in Manhattan.
Faith-Based and Secular Approaches to Dialogue and Conflict Resolution
Chip Hauss, Search for Common Ground
Ambassador Robert Seiple, Institute for Global Engagement
This workshop will explore secular and faith-based approaches to conflict resolution through the use of dialogue. Special emphasis will be given to the search for reconciliation and the "cultural wars" in the United States. The workshop will help guide Search for Common Ground and partner organizations in developing a major, long-term project to bring secular and faith-based members of our community together to find common ground and reach common goals. Thus, we will present our thinking so far, work with participants to help clarify our goals, and begin the process of identifying local or regional sites where secular and faith-based colleagues could work together.
Distinguishing Deliberation From Other Kinds of Discourse
David Ryfe, Middle Tennessee State University
This session will clarify what deliberation is and how one may know when deliberation has taken place in group interactions. This will include a brief discussion of a methodology for studying deliberative groups. This work is the result of five years of research on deliberation and participatory democracy. In order to develop a deeper understanding of deliberation as a mode of interaction, David will briefly review existing definitions of deliberation and show deliberation in practice using a few video clips from National Issues Forums. Participants should come away from this session with a better grasp of deliberation as a distinctive activity, a better understanding of what deliberation looks like in practice, a sense of the kind of methodology which might be used to evaluate the interactions of deliberative groups, and an appreciation for the kinds of stumbling blocks which tend to preclude deliberation from taking place.
Scaling Up From Small Group Dialogues: Using "Symbolic Dialogue" to Achieve Large-System Collaboration
John Spady, Forum Foundation
Where are the tools that can measure the "concrete impacts of dialogue?" What "quantitative instruments" can help practitioners and participants better understand their relationship to others in a container of dialogic interaction? How can these very personal containers of dialogue be scaled up to encompass larger systems of collaboration? Can we truly have dialogue among civilizations? Since 1970, The Forum Foundation has developed theories, measurements, methods, and models that address these challenges. Workshop attendees will hear and receive our latest research and review an Internet model for Symbolic Dialogue between teachers, students, parents, and the President of the United States based upon the State-of-the-Union Address.
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Friday Afternoon, Session B
The Heart of Bohm's Dialogue: A 6-hour Exploration
Richard Burg, Simple Idea
Lee Nichol, Center for Creative Inquiry
Special Note: This proposal presumes a developmental progression through the conference, over three two-hour sessions. Its methods are exposition, collective inquiry, and dialogue (in that order). It is offered in the hope that dialogue practitioners from all the 'sectors' identified in the conference proposal may be interested in and willing to participate in Bohm's experiment to deepen their practice and understanding. Sessions 1 and 2 are open to any who wish to attend. Session 3 is limited to 20 people total, and is open only to those who attend Sessions 1 and 2 (see facilitators for exceptions, before Session 1). Lee Nichol's essay, "Wholeness Regained," will be used as a handout for all sessions.
Session 1: Wholeness Regained
Since its inception in 1985, Bohmian dialogue has become widely known, but highly variable in terms of its viability and sustainability. This may arise in part from an incomplete understanding of this dialogue process. In this session we will examine three factors that are often absent from popular presentations of dialogue: self-image or ego, the body, and meaning.
Developing a Dialogue-Centered Agenda for Social Change: Where Can and Should the Dialogue Movement Go?
Sandy Heierbacher, Dialogue to Action Initiative
Martha McCoy, Study Circles Resource Center
David Schoem, University of Michigan
Ximena Z??iga, University of Massachusetts
A host of individuals and organizations in various dialogic sectors are doing outstanding work both across the country and globally. However, we have yet to realize the opportunity for all of us as practitioners to collectively make a greater impact on society. We face a series of questions: Where can and should the movement go? How can we, as dialogue leaders and practitioners, organize productively to become a more powerful collective influence, locally and nationally? How can we organize our varied skills, experience, and practice to have greater influence on local, national and global politics and society with regard to such important issues as intergroup relations and social justice?
In this session, several dialogue leaders will begin addressing these questions by discussing a range of visions that exist for the future of the collective dialogue movement. Following their comments, the group will move into a facilitated interactive fishbowl discussion to allow all interested participants to engage in this discussion.
Art & Civic Dialogue: An Exchange Among Arts and Dialogue Practitioners
Andrea Assaf, Barbara Schaeffer Bacon and
Pam Korza, the Animating Democracy Initiative of Americans for the Arts
How can the arts and humanities contribute most potently to civic dialogue and broader civic discourse? This session will offer an overview of arts-based civic dialogue efforts through the work of the Animating Democracy Initiative (ADI). Projects dealing with race issues through dance and the humanities will be featured. Included are the Urban Bush Women's Hair Parties project in Brooklyn and the Andy Warhol Museum's Pittsburgh exhibition of lynching photos and postcards, called Without Sanctuary. The role of art in civic dialogue, collaboration between dialogue specialists and cultural institutions, and using dialogic method within artistic presentation will be discussed. The
session will combine demonstration and participatory activity.
Dynamic Facilitation: A New Model for Dialogue & Deliberation
DeAnna Martin, Center for Wise Democratic Processes
Rosa Zubizarreta, Co-Intelligence Institute
Operating beyond the customary distinction between "dialogue" and "deliberation," Dynamic Facilitation helps groups arrive at practical and creative breakthroughs through a process of "co-sensing." Very active, yet non-directive facilitation fully draws out and supports diverse perspectives, while mapping a self-organizing, emergent process. At least half of the workshop will consist of an opportunity for participants to experience this method first-hand. Depending upon participants' interests, there will also be some story-telling - sharing excerpts from practitioner narratives gathered as part of a qualitative research study on the applicability and theoretical implications of this method.
Cultural Considerations and Dialogue Facilitator Preparation: Contributions from the Diversity Field
Evelyn Boyer and Cole McGee
National MultiCultural Institute
This workshop addresses the need to prepare practitioners to better anticipate issues of diversity as they arise, and to respond appropriately. The main objective of this session is to enable participants to facilitate dialogues with an increased awareness of how power, privilege, and race/class/gender/sexual orientation dynamics impact both the facilitation and "participant experience" of any dialogue. ?Training in diversity is complex, and requires adequate time for participants to learn, experience, process, and then reflect on the subject matter. Ideally, participants would engage in three modules -- knowledge, awareness, and skills. Given the length of this session, we will focus primarily on "awareness," inviting participants to engage in an experiential activity that will increase their understanding of issues of power and privilege. We will also deliver brief lecturettes on cultural considerations in facilitating dialogues, and provide participants with materials to further increase their skills in working with diverse populations.
Community Dialogue Post-9/11: Sharing Our Learnings & Experiences
Laura Chasin and Maggie Herzig, The Public Conversations Project
In the wake of 9/11, many Americans feel voiceless or criticized if they have different views from people with whom they usually speak freely. In this workshop, Laura Chasin and Maggie Herzig will facilitate the group through an abbreviated version of a one-session dialogue format that the Public Conversations Project developed for people interested in promoting constructive conversations about shifting realities and varied experiences since 9/11/01. They will share what they've learned, and invite others to share what they've learned, in the attempt to bring the skills and resources of dialogue facilitation to bear on the challenges of constructive communication and public engagement in this new era. The session will end with a discussion of ways that practitioners might support each other in this particular kind of work. Participants will receive a copy of PCP's "Constructive Conversations about Challenging Times: A Guide to Community Dialogue."
Beginning, Maturing & Growing a Sustained Dialogue
Len and Libby Traubman,
Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue
Social change needs time, thus Sustained Dialogue. This process begins with individuals - innovators and early adapters - in Sustained Dialogue with diverse others, even with "enemies." The "action" of dialogue is relationship-building: beginning, deepening, and expanding the circle of face-to-face, Sustained Dialogue and educational outreach. Want to begin a dialogue group where you live? Learn how to find dialogue partners, conduct first meetings, establish a dependable core group, define what dialogue is and is not. We will also discuss working with the media, balancing Dialogue and Advocacy, dealing with human dynamics, deciding when and how to begin outreach and public offerings. Each participant will receive a 10-page booklet, "Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue," with quotes, guidelines, and responses to frequently asked questions. Using video, facilitators' ten years of experience with Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue, and participant experience-sharing, attendees will be better able to begin a local dialogue group, understand dialogue principles, and take the story of the dialogue to the
community, media, and world.
How to Host a Successful Online Dialogue
Sheila Collins, NABRE and the Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies
Barry Joseph, Global Kids
Amy Ladd, Group Jazz
Jed Miller, Web Lab
Pat Scully, Study Circles Resource Center
Mike Weiksner, E The People
How can you create powerful and effective online dialogues that will not degenerate into bar-room brawls or empty auditoriums? Learn how six different organizations (E The People, Web Lab, Global Kids, GroupJazz, NABRE, and Study Circles) have succeeded in consistently generating high quality online dialogues. They will discuss the details of successful dialogues and the technology and techniques on which they were based. The first part of the session will focus on presentations from the panelists, while the second will focus on addressing issues raised by session participants. Some issues to be discussed include: What are the keys to conducting a successful online dialogue? What do online dialogues offer over face-to-face dialogues? Are relationships formed online "real" relationships? How to decide between moderated vs. unmoderated online dialogues?
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Saturday Morning, Session C
(En)Circling Understandings: Story Circles as Social Justice Education
Gloria Bouis and Sivagami Subbaraman, University of Maryland, Office of Human Relations Programs
Story Circles bring together a group of diverse participants with a single, shared element of identity. This identity is explored through autobiographical narratives. Story circles offer a pedagogical alternative that allows us to redraw boundaries and cross borders between and among differences in a way that allows us to build community without negation of such diverse differences. They offer a model for conflict resolution that works with and between differences. The goal of the session is to demonstrate how sharing personal experiences and narratives can be a politically and culturally transformative experience. By experiencing a simulated Story Circle, participants will learn how differences can become enabling and empowering spaces for themselves and for others.
Managing the Being-Doing Dilemma: Is Dialogue a Tool For Action or a Way of Being Together?
Megan Buchanan Schopf, Artful Work
Laurie Shiparski, CPM Resource Center
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| Artist Megan Schopf interpreted some of the plenary and break-out sessions graphically (and beautifully!). |
This session explores the tension between dialogue as a tool for action and dialogue as a deeply human way of being together. Some believe this dilemma could impede progress in the use of dialogue in this country. At a deeper level, this dilemma represents our individual struggles with being and doing in the world. What does the world call forth from our being and our doing? This session will use Dynamic Dialogue and Polarity Management and will incorporate the basic skills of dialogue (intention, inquiry, advocacy, silence, listening). The use of both movement and graphic art offer a fun and interactive experience. ?Participants will learn to describe the elements of Dynamic Dialogue and Polarity Management, and use these methods to explore the critical issue of the being-doing dilemma in dialogue. Handouts will include information on Dynamic Dialogue and Polarity Management, worksheets, and references for further work.
Preparing for Participation: Inquiry that Supports Reflection
Sallyann Roth and Bob Stains,
the Public Conversations Project
This workshop offers an opportunity to examine inquiry as a support to reflective process: a means of helping participants to prepare for dialogue by becoming clearer and more articulate about their beliefs, hopes, fears, intentions and commitments than they otherwise might be. It builds on the experience of the Public Conversations Project in bringing people with widely divergent views together for constructive conversations.
Reaching Out: Taking Conflict Resolution to the Wider Public
Eileen Dzik and Carole Frampton, Search for Common Ground
This workshop will examine how the principles and skills of conflict resolution can be brought to a wider audience, motivating people to apply conflict resolution to their own lives and work, and making it the expected and normal approach at all levels of society. As one example of an innovative strategy, we will look at Common Ground Talk, a program that aims to change the way local radio and television talk shows deal with divisive public issues. Common Ground Talk trains mediators and journalists in dialogue techniques specifically adapted to the talk show format and empowers them to access the local media to produce their own programs. Through discussion, experiential exercises and videotaped excerpts from television and radio programs, the workshop will illustrate how to build a culture of conflict resolution in your community and how to bring non-adversarial, solution-oriented programming to the airwaves.
The United States: A People's Dialogue - An arts-based civic dialogue on the nature of citizenship since 9/11
Marty Pottenger, Animating Democracy
Patricia Romney Ph.D., Romney Associates, Inc.
Combining the imaginative power of art with the transformative power of dialogue creates dramatic possibilities for communication and connection. Current events emphasize the critical importance for people to gather and reclaim the ability to dialogue across ideological differences. The United States: A People's Dialogue was commissioned by the Animating Democracy Initiative for its first post-September 11th Learning Exchange. Participants will be introduced to arts-based civic dialogue and the value of musical, visual, and kinetic creative expression in the dialogue experience.
Facilitators will demonstrate the value of verbal and non-verbal creative expression in civic dialogue and the opportunities for artist/dialogue practitioner collaboration. Beginning with a musical composition written and performed live by Terry Dame, the session includes one-on-one listening exchanges, a full group facilitated dialogue, a closing evaluative exercise and a variety of arts-based dialogic models that demonstrate the value of performance, creative expression, kinetic experience, and metaphor in creating transformative dialogues.
Convening & Facilitating Dialogues to Maximize Participation of "Lesser-Heard" Voices
Susan Clark and Enrique Ramirez, Target Knowledge
A fundamental democratic principle is to have the widest possible participation to ensure that all interests are represented. In dialogue, having more diverse participants creates greater opportunities for new perspectives, new relationships and new possibilities for action. Yet all too often the usual suspects show up and the lesser-heard voices do not participate. This session will explore practical ways to reach out and recruit more diverse participants for your dialogues, facilitation techniques for more inclusive dialogue, and ways to help a diverse group shift from dialogue to action. There will be a combination of large group and small group discussion to define "lesser-heard" voices, to reflect on the challenges associated with more inclusive dialogues, and to share your successes and lessons learned. A presentation and handouts that feature three case studies will complement the group work.
Strategies & Skills for Effective Facilitator Training
John Fenner, The Center for Dialogue
Gwen Whiting, G. Whiting & Associates
Skillful facilitation is an important component of almost every dialogue practice. This session is for anyone in the dialogue field who is concerned about facilitator training. The session will begin by exploring the principles beneath dialogue facilitation. It will draw on the study circle process and will provide a way to apply the key principles of training to other dialogue practices. A diverse team of trainers will take participants through a "mini" version of a study circle facilitator training, demonstrating some of the key elements of effective training - presentation, demonstration, and skill building. Then, session participants will have a chance to debrief the training exercise as a group. The workshop will be highly interactive and will leave participants with some hands-on tools to apply in their own dialogue practices.
Exploring Conflicts & Common Ground: A Critical-Dialogic Approach to Intergroup Dialogue
Craig Alimo, University of Maryland Office of Human Relations Programs
Ratnesh Nagda, University of Washington
Monita Thompson, University of Michigan
Carolyn Vasques-Scalera, George Washington Univ.
Ximena Z??iga, University of Massachusetts
In this interactive session, participants will have an opportunity to learn about a critical-dialogic intergroup dialogue model that seeks to cultivate student engagement across difference on the college campus. Intergroup dialogues are small, face-to-face, facilitated encounters between members of two (or more) different social identity groups that have a history of conflict or potential conflict. These groups create a safe space where students can explore issues of conflict and difference through meaningful and thoughtful conversations across and within lines of difference. The pedagogy and the curriculum of the intergroup dialogue blend dialogic and bridge building methods with critical analysis of group inequality to bridge differences. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to learn about key foundational and design principles, experiential applications, and the links established between faculty and student affairs to implement the intergroup dialogues on various campuses.
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Saturday Morning, Session D
The Life-Cycle of a Dialogue Group: From Birth to Action
Reena Bernards and Najat Arafat Khelil,
The Dialogue Project
This workshop takes participants through the stages of dialogue, from creating a group, through crises, caucusing, going public, action, reentry and recommitment. The presenters will discuss how to build a leadership partnership across cultural differences, based on their experiences as a Jewish-Palestinian team for over fifteen years. They will share ways to create a dialogue that is owned by all participants. The workshop will discuss ways to integrate conflict resolution skills into the dialogue process. "Twenty Stages of a Dialogue Group," developed by the presenters, will be the basis for the discussion. The "track two diplomacy" model (between citizens and political influentials) will be explored. The workshop will be interactive, giving participants an opportunity to discuss their own experiences, and to share difficulties they face in starting new groups. The goal of the workshop is to further develop leaders' skills in bringing groups in conflict through the process of dialogue.
Remarketing Dialogue: The New D&D!
Jed Miller, Web Lab
Elaine Shen, Television Race Initiative/Active Voice
Lars Torres, AmericaSpeaks
Miriam Wyman, Practicum Limited
There is an urgent need to inspire the general public about the power of dialogue and deliberation, and to encourage the community of practice to think "in the vernacular." If we are to "re-market" the idea of a participatory, deliberative citizen role, we need to anticipate its cultural niches. In the 70s and 80s people gathered in homes and schools to play Dungeons and Dragons, imagining a different world and talking about what their roles would be. Can gatherings for constructive dialogue and democratic deliberation achieve that sort of cultural momentum? Could there be Oprah "Talk Groups" like there are Book Groups? What are the obstacles to this re-marketing? How can we brainstorm the partnerships, goals and strategies this re-marketing will require?
The Difference Deliberative Dialogue Makes: The Diversity and Community Project at Franklin Pierce College
Doug Challenger, Joni Doherty and Jed Donelan,
New England Center for Civic Life at Franklin Pierce College
How can higher education better educate students to embrace diversity and build more welcoming environments? How can faculty be more effective in teaching and modeling essential skills of democratic citizenship? This session will present one college's attempt to answer these questions through the Diversity and Community Project at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, New Hampshire, an initiative of the New England Center for Civic Life. The core principle is that deliberative dialogue, in concert with more traditional academic approaches like lecture and debate, should be an important part of a liberal arts education. Students, faculty and staff both in and outside the classroom engage in public discourse patterned on the National Issue Forums (NIF): a 20 year-old, nationwide network of non-partisan citizen forums. Like NIF, the Project enables people to listen to the life experiences of others and work together to help change their community. The presentation will include the screening of a new 45-minute documentary video of this project.
Evaluating Intergroup Dialogue: What We Did and What We Learned
Christian Dorsey, Operation Understanding DC
Ellen Wayne, University of Baltimore, Center for Negotiation & Conflict Management
This session is about the real life experience of evaluating a dialogue program. The presenters - one the program director who decided to undertake the evaluation and the other an outside evaluator who worked on the project -- will discuss an evaluation performed for Operation Understanding DC. OUDC is a year-long educational leadership program for African American and Jewish high school students from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Through regular discussions, educational sessions, and travel, OUDC participants are encouraged to develop relationships of mutual respect and understanding, to understand and reduce stereotypes, and to become activists working to reduce societal prejudice. Both the dialogue and conflict resolution communities have been slow to evaluate the work they have undertaken. Evaluation can help practitioners show the effectiveness of their programs and make improvements where needed. It can also help create a broader understanding of dialogue and dialogue programs.
White Privilege and Critical Pedagogy: Dialogue in the Classroom
Lauren Parker Kucera, M.A., coAction
White privilege and racism in their subtlest forms range from the constant barrage of media representation to the unexamined "hit and run" statements from well meaning people. These subtleties and unspoken messages create many of the white cultural "norms" of our classroom and educational environments. The goal of this session is for participants to better understand the impact of white privilege in the classroom through the practice of inquiry and dialogue. Participants will have the opportunity to explore their thoughts and feelings about white privilege and the multiple ways it affects themselves, their students and our educational process as a whole. Join in for activities, use of film and dialogue that will share ways of uncovering what can be seen as covert, unintentional racism. Some of the films used will be: "About Race," Secrets of the SAT," "Skin Deep," and "Some Questions for 28 Kisses."
Linking People and Communities with Public Policy-Makers: Innovative, Community-Driven Strategies Of "Civic Engagement" In Public Policy-Making On Behalf Of Children & Families
Ken Colling, San Diego Children's & Family Commission
Katie Howard & Michelle Vilchez,
Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center
Cristina Rodriguez de la Mar,
Civic Engagement Project for Children & Families
The Civic Engagement Project supports innovative, community-driven strategies of "civic engagement" in public policy-making on behalf of young children and families, with the goal of creating better public policy decisions and outcomes. CEP is committed to engaging very diverse peoples/ communities beyond "input," that steer public funds. CEP focuses on engaging populations traditionally underrepresented in the public policy-making process and creating sustainable relationships between people/ communities and public policy-makers. This session opens with a short video giving an overview of CEP and highlighting various forms of "dialogue" as a community engagement strategy. Representatives from San Mateo and San Diego, CA will showcase several innovative approaches (world caf?, community dialogues, etc.) linking residents with policymakers around policy affecting young children and their families. The session will combine short presentation and interactive discussions, encouraging thoughtful comparison of different approaches.
Society's Breakthrough! - Facilitating a Dialogue-based Society
DeAnna Martin and Jim Rough, Center for Wise Democratic Processes
Three innovations in the field of dialogue can help change the way we think and talk as a society - not just in small groups, but as a wise and responsible "We the People." In this session, we will consider Dynamic Facilitation, the Wisdom Council, and the Citizens Amendment. These are described in the book, Society's Breakthrough! Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People, by Jim Rough.
The session will be part presentation, part facilitated dialogue on how to include all of us in the crucial decision-making conversations of society, and how to reshape those conversations so they build the spirit of community. It's a fast-track way to solve today's most pressing issues and generate a "global wisdom society."
Bridges Across Racial Polarization?: A Model Program of Interracial Dialogue
Barbara Levin, Bridges Across Racial Polarization (FOCUS St. Louis)
Bridges Across Racial Polarization, recently named a "Solution for America" by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change, is a unique response to the need to build better communication and understanding among all segments of our community. Bridges currently engages over 300 people in informal, interracial social gatherings, offering opportunities to develop greater interaction, new friendships, and broader understanding among people of different races. With relationship building at its core, the Bridges program is a common-sense approach to bringing individuals together in each other's homes to share food and conversation with one another. Bridges can be replicated or adapted to meet the needs of any community, group, organization, or business. Conference participants will receive theoretical and concrete information regarding the development of the program and implementation guidelines. The session will include discussion, interaction and handouts.
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Saturday Afternoon, Session E
The Heart of Bohm's Dialogue (continued)
Richard Burg, Simple Idea
Lee Nichol, Center for Creative Inquiry
Session 2: The Power of Insight and the Roots of Violence: ?This session will be a collaborative inquiry into the issues raised in Session 1, with emphasis on the possibility of radical breakthroughs and understandings. If Bohm's vision of participatory experience is to have a solid foundation, the blockages to this vision must be met head-on. This involves exploring the tacit nature of our own violent tendencies, prior to their eruption in overt contexts. When our body signals an insult to our self-image in response to the "other" in social intercourse, can we slow down, notice, and grasp the meaning?
Walk That Talk: Beyond Our Stories About Race
Cynthia Jones and Kathleen Kane, CUNY Hostos Community College
What keeps us from talking about race and racism? Our workshop presents a unique race dialogue model, "Walk That Talk," which uses the personal narrative as a starting point for conversations about race. From stories, participants identify the larger social forces that allow racism to persist. The model encourages people to "walk the talk" to action in their own communities. In order to gain a sense of the progression of the model, workshop participants will be asked to write and share race stories; identify underlying issues, risks, common ground; and design a break the silence session for future use.
Building a Movement for Dialogue, Deliberation & Democracy: Where Do We Go From Here?
Tom Atlee and Adin Rogovin, The Co-Intelligence Institute
This session is intended to stimulate thinking about creating in the United States "a democratic culture of dialogue" capable of influencing the course of public affairs at all levels. Areas for exploration include: What would a social movement look like that could bring about a democratic culture of dialogue? Is evolution towards such a culture already underway? What is possible here? What roles and activities are needed to more effectively spread dialogic worldviews and practices? Do we need an umbrella organization or network specifically established to bring us together to pursue this? How interested are we in this? Tom Atlee will offer a brief (10-20 minute) overview of the dialogue field and some things an emerging dialogue movement might address. This presentation leads into a participants' dialogue that Adin Rogovin will facilitate using Dynamic Facilitation.
The World Caf?: Building Collaborative Learning Communities in the Service of a Global Wisdom Society
Nancy Young, Institute of Noetic Sciences
The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) has adopted the World Caf? as a core methodology for connecting our 35,000 members and 250 Community Groups to enable accessing their own collective intelligence in the service of the IONS vision of a Global Wisdom Society. The World Caf? is an innovative method for creating living networks of conversation which link small and large group dialogue. It is also a provocative metaphor enabling us to work more intentionally with the informal webs of conversation and meaning making that lie at the heart of large scale change. This workshop will be 80% experiential, including three rounds of Caf? conversations plus accessing the group's own wisdom around core questions relevant to participants own lives and work.
Dance Exchange on Dialogue & Making Dance
John Borstel and Liz Lerman, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, founded in 1976, creates sophisticated performance works through community interaction and participation. The company's recent Hallelujah project staged unique dances in 15 cities across the country. Each program was drawn from the host community's response to the question "What are you in praise of?" Varied levels of dialogue are incorporated into this process of community engagement. Through a grant from the Animating Democracy Initiative, the Dance Exchange is exploring the implications of this process for civic dialogue.
This no-experience-necessary workshop will highlight particular tools from the Dance Exchange's art-making practice that support dialogue, contain dialogue elements, or advance the values of effective civic dialogue. By engaging in aspects of the dance-making process, workshop attendees will explore non-verbal dimensions of dialogue, the impact of specificity in social exchange, and the applications of collaborative structures, with the possibility of gaining tools that are worthwhile accompaniments to other dialogue methodologies.
Are We Hearing What They're Saying? Transforming Education Through Teacher/Student Dialogues
Paul Gorski, University of Maryland, Office of Human Relations Programs
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| Paul Gorski of the University of Maryland facilitated a wonderful break-out session that included a demonstration of a teacher/student dialogue. |
Advocates for social justice and multicultural education talk about inclusion, engagement, and making classrooms student-centered. Yet we rarely, if ever, engage student voices in these important discussions. One way to engage student voices in discussions of multicultural education is through structured student/teacher dialogues. In this session, a diverse group of local middle and high school students who have previously participated in such dialogues will demonstrate how this approach may level the teacher/learner hierarchy so that all participants become fully engaged. Workshop attendees will stand in for the teachers during the student fishbowl exercise and in subsequent small group dialogues. Adults and students will have the opportunity to process the experience and to learn how to initiate student/teacher dialogues on multicultural education concerns such as tracking and standardized testing.
Using Film to Build Dialogue to Action: How to bring in and sustain effective stakeholders and build new collaborations.
Elaine Shen, Television Race Initiative/Active Voice
This workshop demonstrates how to harness powerful documentary films to focus public attention on issues such as immigration, cultural identity, race and religious diversity and tolerance. In this interactive workshop, participants will see how Television Race Initiative/Active Voice campaigns offer a range of practical tools and materials that develop variety of positive outcomes for community organizations through dialogue to action. The session will focus on strategies for using film as a tool for community organizing, alliance building, and public education, and will cover techniques for using media to build the capacity of organizations. Participants will also view sneak preview clips from two film projects, The Islam Project and The New Americans not yet shown to the public.
Using Informal Writing to Foster Democratic Dialogue: From Small-Group Gatherings to Online Forums
Irene Papoulis, Intercollegiate E-Democracy Project
Beverly Wall, Trinity College
The act of writing informally together in groups on a common question generates a wonderful opportunity to create connections. Sharing, listening, and responding to others' writing takes those connections into the realm of deliberation. This experiential workshop will model the use of informal writing and sharing. It will demonstrate how informal writing can help dialogue practitioners achieve thoughtful analysis and awareness of one's own voice and views; respect for the diverse voices and perspectives of others; and development of dialogic literacy, a key democratic skill needed for deliberation and community-building, both in person and online. Participants will be invited to write informally together on various prompts and engage in dialogue, both spoken and written. We will distribute handouts with practical suggestions and prompts for using informal writing to foster dialogue in various contexts.
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Sunday Morning, Session F
The Heart of Bohm's Dialogue (continued)
Richard Burg, Simple Idea
Lee Nichol, Center for Creative Inquiry
Session 3: Going Nowhere, Doing Nothing: ?Theory turns to practice as we engage in actual dialogue. The circle reveals the arresting power of no agenda, and provides direct access to both the somatic and "virus-like" (collective) aspects of dialogue. Here participants are invited to actively explore their own self-image, and the dynamic flux of images and meanings in the group as a whole. When a critical mass of participants freely enters this exploration, Bohmian dialogue begins to flower.
Nonviolent Communication: Practical Tools to Realize the Full Potential of Dialogue
Duke Duchscherer, Center for Nonviolent Communication
Dialogue involves talking deeply and personally about issues that seem to separate us. Many of us have been educated to speak about our differences using life-alienated communication, which only increases the difficulty we have in truly hearing each other. In this session, you will learn the simple, practical tools of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) that will enable you to truly hear another (and be heard) with compassion and understanding. Using your own experience of the challenges of differences, you will have an opportunity to utilize NVC's four-step model to hear beyond differences to the underlying needs common to us all. This will occur through a variety of individual and small group exercises. The exercises enable participants to use NVC to translate hard-to-hear messages and enemy images (their own and others' thoughts, judgments, criticisms, blame) into fuel for understanding and connection.
A Dialogue on the Role of History in Inter-Ethnic Conflicts
Millicent Carvahlo, Pennsylvania Conflict Resolution & Mediation Services, Inc.
Najeeba Syeed-Miller, Asian-Pacific American Dispute Resource Center
Participants will have an opportunity to dialogue on issues regarding how to integrate elements of history into dialogue and deliberation, or whether divesting from historical relationships is the way to go. The workshop will be highly experiential and will include large and small group exercises. Participants will have an opportunity to examine their own cultural histories in the context of work they do. Questions for discussion include: What are some of the positive aspects of continuing to work within a historical context? What are some of the challenges in continuing to work within a historical paradigm, (e.g. relationships regarding victim/offender in past between ethnic communities)?
Working with Top Management Teams and Dialogue in Britain
Rich Field, Field Enterprise Ltd.
As business becomes more complex, competitive and legislative, the stresses on managers increase. Customers demand more, requiring constantly improving quality, service, and value. Shareholders exert growing influence through increasingly confrontational annual meetings. Employees look to management for security, stable employment, and improved standards of living. Legislation regulating directors' responsibilities is increasing. Communities expect employers to provide resources for their good causes. It is not surprising that boardroom meetings are often frenetic, stressful, action-focused and performance-related. This presentation will offer the findings of eighteen months of a doctoral research program using and adapting dialogue processes with top British management teams. After presenting his findings, Rich will ask participants to share their reflections on his experience, data, and questions such as: Can dialogue enhance effectiveness and bring more joy to work in such an environment? How and where is dialogue being used in top management teams? What is the evidence of its effectiveness?
INTRAgroup Dialogue: Models for Single Identity Structured Interaction
Kelly Maxwell, Monita Thompson and
Aaron Traxler-Ballew, University of Michigan IGRCC
This session will address some of the unique challenges inherent in INTRAgroup dialogue. The Program on Intergroup Relations at the University of Michigan has specialized in INTERgroup interaction for the past 13 years. We are currently adapting our intergroup dialogue model for an intragroup setting. The presenters will share the modified process/content outlines and compare and contrast the important processes of both inter- and intragroup dialogue. Distinctions will be made between intragroup processes for target and agent groups. Specific examples from UM pilot initiatives will be described. Small group interaction will explore the nature of target and agent intragroup interaction. Continued strategizing about the models will be discussed and constructive feedback of the processes described will be welcome and encouraged. This session will be intentionally interactive and discussion-oriented to allow participants to share their experiences with intragroup dialogue and to discuss the value and application of such initiatives.
Dialogue and Deliberation in Canada: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Citizen Participation
Miriam Wyman, Practicum Limited
Sandra Zagon, Canadian Policy Research Networks
Citizens in Canada want to participate in setting policy priorities. Governments want this yet feel challenged by it. The resulting tensions are affecting the health of civil society. Participants will learn about efforts to enhance democratic practices in Canada and will focus on barriers to effectiveness and ways to overcome them.
Sandra Zagon will discuss the work of the Canadian Policy Research Networks, which uses citizens' dialogues as an essential element of its research methodology. Three projects will be described: Quality of Life in Canada: A Citizens' Report Card; Citizens' Dialogue on the Future of Health Care in Canada; and Citizens' Dialogue on The Kind of Canada We Want. Miriam Wyman will discuss three Canadian experiments in expanding civic space, focusing on three questions. Were citizens able to: Strengthen their voices in political decisions? Achieve a more balanced relationship with government? Establish more permanent mechanisms to increase their involvement in governance? The answer, in all three cases, appears to "Yes?but."
Can Dialogue be used as a Reconciliation Tool? Avoiding One-Sided Blame and Sharing Responsibility for Community Change
David Campt, RaceDoctor.org
Yvonne Haynes, Hope in the Cities
Cricket White, Hope in the Cities
When parties are polarized and there appears to be a distinct perpetrator/victim relationship, it is hard to balance the dialogue so that it is open enough to engage the 'perpetrators' and yet honest and courageous enough to assure the 'victims' that the issues will be addressed fully. Hope in the Cities believes that reconciliation calls forth a spiritual process on the part of everyone in a dispute. It involves an honest conversation (dialogue), each individual taking personal responsibility for the resolution/reconciliation, and a fearless, honest acknowledgement of historical wrongs which lead/led to the polarization. Participants in this workshop will examine these concepts within the context of their own experiences as well as compare two communities that are using these methods as ways to build healthier communities.
Evaluation of The Environmental Justice Collaborative Model
Eric Marsh, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Since the 1980's, evidence has shown that minority and low-income communities have been disproportionately burdened with environmental hazards. Although efforts have been made to address this challenge, reversing this trend has proven difficult. This session will provide background on a national effort underway to foster collaboration as a tool for disadvantaged communities faced with an array of multifaceted and complex environmental, public health, and socio-economic challenges; highlight findings from a recent evaluation that looks at six partnerships using this approach; and stimulate dialogue around how collaborative approaches can best be used in disadvantaged communities to better ensure that they resolve lingering public health and environmental problems and build the type of community that reflects their concerns regarding equity, jobs, safety, environment, and overall quality of life. The session includes both a presentation and audience discussion of key issues.
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Sunday Morning, Session G
The Heart of Bohm's Dialogue (continued)
Richard Burg, Simple Idea
Lee Nichol, Center for Creative Inquiry
Session 3: Going Nowhere, Doing Nothing:? Theory turns to practice as we engage in actual dialogue. The circle reveals the arresting power of no agenda, and provides direct access to both the somatic and "virus-like" (collective) aspects of dialogue. Here participants are invited to actively explore their own self-image, and the dynamic flux of images and meanings in the group as a whole. When a critical mass of participants freely enters this exploration, Bohmian dialogue begins to flower.
Using Citizen Deliberative Councils to Generate Citizen Wisdom to Guide our Democracy
Tom Atlee, The Co-Intelligence Institute
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| Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute presented a fabulous session on Citizen Deliberative Councils (www.co-intelligence.org). |
This presentation will describe existing and envisioned forms of citizen deliberative councils (CDCs), a category of deliberative body already convened hundreds of times around the world. Citizen's juries, German planing cells, Danish consensus conferences and Maclean's magazine 1991 Canadian experiment (the "The People's Verdict") will be described, as well as the visions of Jim Rough (Wisdom Council), John Gastil (citizen panels), Ned Crosby (Citizen Initiative Review and Citizen Election Forum), and Sen. Mike Gravel (National Initiative for Democracy). ?Tom will share stories and methods associated with CDCs and suggest how to integrate the existing and proposed models. He will also map out the roles they could play in the design of a deliberative democracy - how they can support a new pattern of governance which elicits and utilizes community-generated wisdom, direct democracy and widespread citizen deliberation.
How Socrates Caf? Can Create a More Participatory Society
Chris Phillips, Society for Philosophical Inquiry
I will discuss how holding Socratic dialogues with the end of bringing together people from diverse walks of life and ages can create new habits of discourse, and can help foment the development of a more participatory and deliberative democracy in which what everyone says, does and thinks genuinely matters and counts. I will distinguish the co-inquiry version of Socratic inquiry that I use (and elaborate the tradition from which it stems), from the other versions that are being used, and also explicate what its ends are and how its ends are achieved. I will also give, in addition to a theoretic segment, a nuts-and-bolts talk on how virtually anyone can start and coordinate and facilitate over the long-term such sessions (I will also hand out a pamphlet describing how to do this), which inspire people to reveal the unique within themselves by opening their intellectual and imaginative lenses to a wider variety of ways of world-viewing and world-making.
Tipping the Culture: Fostering Habits of Dialogue and Collaborative Action on College Campuses
Nancy Thomas, Democracy Project, Society for Values in Higher Education
Colleges and universities provide ideal forums for modeling and practicing the arts of democracy. Imagine our society if students of all disciplines studied and experienced multiple ways of engaging in public discourse, particularly across common social divisions such as race, gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs, political affiliation, or lived experiences. These graduates would be better leaders, citizens, parents, and employees. How do we reach more than a handful of students and faculty? In this session, we'll review two pilot initiatives Listening to Communities and the Democracy Project. The goal will be to consider practical strategies for "tipping the culture," fostering not just skills but a way of being at a scale designed for impact. Session participants will be invited to share their own experiences and successes. The session will be predominantly interactive, but it will be framed by a presentation on the two projects.
From Talk to Action in Large-scale Dialogue Programs: Lessons from Community Experiences
Matt Leighninger, Democracy Workshop/Study Circles Resource Center
This session will provide participants with a quick overview of the outcomes of large-scale democratic organizing efforts. Exploring lessons learned in the communities in which these efforts have taken place will add to participants' knowledge of the field, better enabling them to plan and carry out large-scale, talk-to-action program strategies for their own communities. Activities will include a description of example programs, small group brainstorming about talk-to-action challenges, and explanation of key principles.
Creating Safe Space for Victim-Offender Dialogue: A Restorative Justice Perspective
Phyllis Turner Lawrence,
Restorative Justice Consultant
At the heart of the paradigm of restorative justice is the opportunity for crime victims to voluntarily participate in a facilitated dialogue with the person(s) who take responsibility for committing the offense. Facilitators generally are community members with a strong desire to aid in creating a healing response to crime. Participants will: Explore and develop an understanding of the principles of Restorative Justice (RJ); Learn about at least three different models of victim-offender (and community) dialogue processes with cross-over applicability to schools and workplaces; and Understand the benefits and risks of participation and the facilitator's role in creating a safe place. A video of a victim-offender dialogue will be shown with discussion. On returning home, participants can seek out existing efforts or initiate further local dialogue, which may result in adoption of RJ principles and practices.
Creating Conversation Caf?s Where Strangers Can Talk: Promoting & Marketing a Culture of Conversation
Michael Kerman and Susan Partnow,
Conversation Caf?
How can we increase our cultural capacity for conversation-that-matters? Learn to create community-wide drop-in dialogues in caf?s. Discover the innovative, low-cost ways that helped Conversation Caf?s spread throughout Seattle and Toronto in just 6 months and continue to make inroads in a dozen more cities. Conversation Caf?s enable strangers to come together in public places and engage in authentic, transformative dialogue on issues most pressing to them and to our times. Skillful use of media, email, posters, collaborations, volunteers, networking, web sites, humor, public speaking, event production, a bit of charisma and buzz all contribute. Also, learn how Conversation Caf?s differ from other dialogue techniques -- especially how open-boundaries, empowered Caf? hosts, and low commitment allow busy people to taste meaningful dialogue AND come back for more. Come share successes in spreading the word and widening the net to larger, more diverse communities.
Community Dialogue: Power & Pitfalls
Mary Jane Hollis, Aurora Community Study Circles
For the last seven years I have organized, implemented, facilitated, trained facilitators, and helped incorporate an organization, the Aurora Community Study Circles, that has a sustained community wide dialogue that addresses racial and ethnic relationships and issues using the study circles model. The focus of my presentation will be sharing practical information and knowledge and concrete suggestions gained from this experience. Questions addressed will be as follows: How do you sustain a program? What are the benefits of a sustained program? How do you get all the players to the table? What impact does a sustained program have on community building and social action? How does a sustained program transform conflict and enhance peace building within a diverse community? We will grapple as well with the nuts and bolts of what makes a community wide dialogue program effective in cultivating democratic practice. Emphasis will be placed on workshop participants' questions and input to answer questions.
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