Facilitating Transformational Dialogues: Creating Socially Just Communities

This much-needed guide provides the specific skills and materials necessary to facilitate effective dialogues across identity differences. We are living through arguably one of the most divisive times in our country and the world. People do not know how to communicate across differences in a way that advances the public good--from the international halls of power to local city governments to classrooms to family dinners. The consequences are devastating--from hate-fueled conflicts and mass shootings to teachers who do not know how to address problematic comments in the classroom. This book responds to the urgent need to address complicated, intense, and oftentimes personal differences in a productive way. Written for both novice and experienced facilitators, it offers concrete materials to use in classrooms and other settings, along with anecdotes, vignettes, and hard-earned lessons based on the authors' own experiences. By capturing conversations among leaders in the field and emergent practitioners, Facilitating Transformational Dialogues emanates optimistic energy and time-tested wisdom from the fields of Intergroup Relations and Intergroup Dialogue.

Book Features:

• A roadmap for school, university, and community leaders to navigate the implementation of dialogues.
• An exploration into why talking about power in intimate cross-identity dialogue settings is key to dismantling systems of oppression.
• A primer on the foundations of facilitation with specific suggestions for pre- and inservice teachers, professors, youth advisors, school administrators, business leaders, and everyone interested in promoting dialogue across difference.
• An extended conversation around intergroup dialogue that includes a chapter on well-being for facilitators.
• A range of strategies for implementing dialogues, from using peer, near-peer, teacher, or consultant-based facilitating frameworks.
• A curriculum that has been field tested in dozens of settings with high school and college students, faculty, professors, and community leaders.
• A dialogue between the founders of intergroup dialogue in higher education and emerging leaders in the field.
• A companion to Race Dialogues: A Facilitator's Guide to Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom by Donna Rich Kaplowitz, Shayla Reese Griffin, and Sheri Seyka

• Contents
• Foreword Beverly Daniel Tatum  ix
• Acknowledgments  xi
• Introduction  1
• 1.  Introduction to IGD: What Is IGD?  7
  Kristie Ford and Kelley Maxwell
• 2.  Key Identity Concepts for IGD Facilitators to Know  15
• Section A: Key Social Identity Concepts for IGD Facilitators to Know  17
  Sara Crider and Danny Alvarez
• Section B: Privilege, Power, and Oppression—Core Terminology  25
  Christina Morton and Meaghan Wheat
• 3.  Intergroup Dialogue Facilitator Techniques  32
• Section A: The Role of Facilitators  34
  Deborah Slosberg and Monita Thompson
• Section B: Equalizing Power Dynamics: Multipartiality, Dominant and Counter-Narratives  39
  Christina Morton and Cesar Vargas-Leon
• Section C: Challenging Dynamics in Intergroup Dialogue  47
  Mark Chesler and Roger Fisher
• 4.  Models of Dialogue  60
• Section A: Co-Facilitator Observations From Faculty and Staff Intergroup Dialogues  62
  Erika Crews, Michael Kaplowitz, and Charles "charlie" Liu
• Section B: Facilitating Race Dialogues With High School Students  70
  Roger Fisher and Donna Rich Kaplowitz
• Section C: Online Dialogues: Their Benefits and Facilitation Challenges  76
  Anna Yeakley
• Section D: Setting the Context for Dialogue in the Workplace  81
  Trey Boynton and Taryn Petryk
• Section E: Dialogues in Instructor Development  85
  Tazin Daniels and Shana Schoem
• Section F: International Dialogue  89
  Alice Mishkin and Rima Hassouneh
• Section G: Just Sayin'—Some Opinions About Facilitation  93
  Charles Behling
• Section H: Dialogue and Movement Organizing  98
  Sariah Metcalfe
• 5.  Passing the Torch: An Intergenerational Dialogue About Dialogue  102
  Participants:  
  Founders: Pat Gurin, Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ximena Zúñiga
  Emerging Leaders: Emely Hernandez Rubio, Olivia "Ollie" Jayakar, Cesar Vargas-Leon, and Meaghan Wheat
• 6.  Well-Being and Facilitation  115
  adrienne maree brown and Stephanie Hicks
• Appendix A: Insight 1: What Is Intergroup Dialogue?  133
• Appendix B: Insight 2: Learning to Listen  135
• Appendix C: Insight 3: Developing Community Guidelines  137
• Appendix D: Insight 4: The Four Levels of Oppression  139
• Appendix E: Insight 5: Facilitator Personal Assessment Chart  141
• Appendix F: Insight 6: The Master/Dominant Narrative, Counter Narratives, and Multipartiality  144
  Adapted from the works of Janet Rifkin, J.D., and Leah Wing, EdD
• Appendix G: Insight 7: Intergroup Dialogue Facilitation  146
• Appendix H: Insight 8: Strategies for Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom  148
• Appendix I: Insight 9: Microaggressions—A Primer  150
• Appendix J: Insight 10: Interrupting Bias—The PALS Approach  152
• Appendix K: Insight 11: How to Apologize—Re-Aact  154
• Appendix L: Strategies for Facilitating Intergroup Dialogue Online  155
  Anna M. Yeakley
• Appendix M: IGD Facilitation: Some Suggestions  161
• References  167
• Index  173
• About the Editors and Contributors  179

Stephanie D. Hicks is a lecturer at the Program on Intergroup Relations (IGR) and a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan.

Donna Kaplowitz is the LSA faculty codirector of IGR and coauthor of Race Dialogues: Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom.