Since 2013, NC Campus Compact has promoted the use of deliberative dialogue as a tool for campuses to build citizens and community. We have trained over 400 faculty, staff, students, from 37 colleges and universities, plus community members, to facilitate deliberative dialogues. Below are the definitions of dialogue and deliberation provided by the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation.
Dialogue is a process that allows people, usually in small groups, to share their perspectives and experiences with one another about difficult issues we tend to just debate about or avoid entirely.
NC Campus Compact's efforts were featured in the National Issues Forum blog in March 2015.
A 2015 study by CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) on Media Literacy and Implications for Youth Engagement found that communication skills can be integral to effectively working with those who have different perspectives. Some of these communication-related benchmarks and competencies - critical evaluation of evidence, taking multiple perspectives, and active listening - in the Common Core State Standards in ELA are conducive to stronger civic learning and engagement. According to CIRCLE, "as we teach young people to communicate effectively, we should look to model productive forms of agreement that seek to build closer connections between discussants. Finding points of agreement or conceding to an opponent's point may be one step in this direction." Learn more.
The planning committee included a deliberative dialogue in the 2013 Civic Engagement Institute. Wake Forest University Professors Katy Harriger and Jill McMillan, and the president of the National Issues Forums, Bill Muse, lead the 176 institute attendees through the process of deliberative dialogue. Participants talked in small moderated groups about the choices facing higher education, using the issue guide, Shaping Our Future: How Should Higher Education Help Us Create the Society We Want?as the common text for discussion. Participants were learning on two levels - thinking through the substantive issues surrounding the future of higher education while simultaneously learning how to deliberate about public issues.
2015 - Training at Elon University featuring Dr. Harry Boyte (pictured). Boyte is the founder of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, merged into the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College where he now serves as Senior Scholar in Public Work Philosophy. He is also a Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and Visiting Professor at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa.
The Changing World of Work: What Should we Ask of Higher Education - this site contains the downloadable issue guide, a starter video, and the Post-Forum Questionnaire.
NC Campus Compact will come to your campus to lead a deliberative dialogue moderator training. Click here to learn more about fees and logistics or contact Leslie Garvin.