Intergroup Dialogue in Higher Education No. 4 : Meaningful Learning about Social Justice

Intergroup dialogue promotes student engagement across cultural and social divides on college campuses through a face-to-face, interactive, and facilitated learning experience that brings together twelve to eighteen students from two or more social identity groups over a sustained period of time. Students in intergroup dialogue explore commonalities and differences; examine the nature and impact of discrimination, power, and privilege; and find ways of working together toward greater inclusion, equality, and social justice.

Intergroup dialogue is offered as a cocurricular activity on some campuses and as a course or part of a course on others. The practice of intergroup dialogue is considered a substantive and meaningful avenue for preparing college graduates with the knowledge, commitment, and skills essential for living and working in a diverse yet socially stratified society. The research evidence supports the promise of intergroup dialogues to meet its educational goals?consciousness raising, building relationships across differences and conflicts, and strengthening individual and collective capacities to promote social justice.

This volume outlines the theory, practice, and research on intergroup dialogue. It also offers educational resources to support the practice of intergroup dialogue. Addressing faculty, administrators, student affairs personnel, students, and practitioners, this volume is a useful resource for anyone implementing intergroup dialogues in higher education.

This is the 4th issue of the 32nd volume of the Jossey-Bass report series ASHE Higher Education Report Series. Each monograph in the series is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education problem, based on thorough research of pertinent literature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication.

XIMENA ZÚNIGA is an associate professor affiliated with the social justice education concentration in the Department of Student Development and Pupil Personnel Services, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

BIREN (RATNESH) A. NAGDA is associate professor of social work and director of the Intergroup Dialogue, Education and Action (IDEA) Center at the University of Washington.

MARK CHESLER is a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan and executive director of Community Resources Ltd. in Ann Arbor.

ADENA CYTRON-WALKER is a practitioner of intergroup dialogue and has actively contributed to the development of this practice over the past eight years.