Facilitating Conversations

Discussion of controversial issues with people who have different perspectives from ones’ own can be challenging. Behavioral health professionals, professionals in training, and associated professionals, need ways to foster civil discourse. The following resources can assist in these conversations. 

For William James College Students Only: please click here for scheduled conversations, by program, about difficult conversations. 

Resources, Handbooks and Guides

• The Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center (DDNRC) was founded in 2011 to ensure that college and university campuses remain places where we protect freedom of expression, sustain academic freedom, promote pluralism, and expand opportunities for constructive communication across different perspectives. 
  • Guidelines for Dialogue (PDF) 
  • DDNRC Blog
     

• The Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University offers information on Difficult Dialogues to  help teachers feel more confident leading difficult dialogues by encouraging reflection on how such discussions connect with larger learning goals, and by providing specific strategies and resources that teachers can use to create more productive conversations in their classrooms. This guide includes "The Basics," some "Specific Tools and Strategies," and a collection of "Additional Resources."

• The University of Alaska Anchorage offers two handbooks to help faculty, faculty developers and university leaders more effectively engage campus communities in conversations about the most important issues of our times. 

  • Start Talking: A Handbook for Engaging Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education addresses strategies for introducing controversial topics into the classroom. 

  • Stop Talking:  Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Learning and Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education looks at ways to apply indigenous pedagogies in western learning environments and some of the tough topics between indigenous and academic communities.

• Handbook for Facilitating Difficult Conversations,  University of Florida, Center for Teaching Excellence (Retrieved October 2020)

• Guide for Parents of Asian/Asian American Adolescents, a guide for parents created by faculty and students in the William James College Asian Mental Health Concentration. Available in multiple languages. 

The Election and Politics

• "2020 Presidential Election a Source of Significant Stress for More Americans than 2016 Presidential Race," Press Release, American Psychological Association (October 17, 2020)

• "Don't Let Election Passions Roil Your Workplace," Bob Feldman, Harvard Business Review, October 2020. 

K-12 Educator and Administrator Resources 

• "Potential Activities to Set Classroom Discussion Environment," Carleton College (Retrieved October 2020)

• "Day after Election Guide: A Resource for Educators and Administrators," Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities (Retrieved October 2020)

• "Election 2020: Engaging Students in Civic Discourse," Johns Hopkins SNF Agora Institute (Retrieved October 2020)