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

Stephanie D. Hicks is a lecturer at the Program on Intergroup Relations and a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan. Donna Kaplowitz is the LSA faculty co-director of The Program on Intergroup Relations at the University of Michigan, and coauthor of Race Dialogues: Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom.