1. Cultivating Agency Towards Civic Dialogues at Marquette University
Funded by: American Association of Colleges and Universities Bringing Theory To Practice Jonathan Borja and Kim Jensen Bohat
KIM

2. Rationale
Concerns about campus climate, especially peer to peer interactions and classroom
Specific concerns about race/ethnicity, religious, immigration, gender/sexuality, and engagement with the Milwaukee community
Coupled with political climate
Tufts study about faculty not feeling comfortable or supported by administration
Encourage increased, high quality dialogue in service learning courses
KIM

3. Dialogue
“Dialogue is a process of genuine interaction through which human beings listen to each other deeply enough to be changed by what they learn. Each makes a serious effort to take others’ concerns into their own picture, even when disagreement persists. No participant gives up their identity, but each recognizes enough of the other’s valid human claims that they will act differently toward the other.”
– Dr. Harold Saunders, Founder and President of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue
Early part of training
- what is the difference between dialogue and debate?
- debate is very close-minded and looking to discredit the other
- dialogue is working towards to understanding the other person's views

4. Civic Dialogue Program
Objectives:
To equip our students and campus community with the ability to respect, listen to, and understand multiple perspectives and experiences
To train faculty and students from across the disciplines as dialogue facilitators in order to encourage discussion around important social justice issues
To improve our overall campus climate by encouraging an increase in opportunities for dialogue in the classroom and beyond
KIM

5. Civic Dialogue Leaders
Civic Dialogue Faculty (CDFs) were paired with student Civic Dialogue Leaders (CDLs) to work together to integrate intentional dialogue opportunities into 16 different courses
Faculty were charged with integrating the dialogues (face to face, and/or online) with their course learning goals
Student staff were charged with journaling their experiences in assisting with these facilitated dialogues
- Each CDL received a faculty mentor, some had two
- Our task was to work with these faculty mentors to incorporate dialogue on topics into the course curriculum
- students also had reflective assignments on our experiences (what goals did we have? what are we nervous about/expecting? what is working in the classroom? is there resistance? etc.)

6. Topics Gender Sexualities Race/Ethnicity Immigration Religion
Milwaukee community
These are the topics CDLs worked to cover in our respective classes

7. Program Participants Dialogue attendees: 16 courses 16 faculty
9 student facilitators, paid $9.25 an hour
Estimated 600 students participated
KIM

8. KIM

9. includes:
- graduate & undergraduate students
- students from social sciences, communications, humanities, health sciences
- 2 males, 7 females
- different identities (race/ethnicity, gender expression/sexuality, religion/spirituality, etc.)

10. Student CDL Training 15 hours of training
All day training on facilitation techniques
Peer-led trainings about social justice topics, and practice facilitation
Online Blog
Speaker, Susan Pliner, Intersecting Identities in the Classroom
Joint sessions with faculty
Showcase
Book- Unlocking the Magic
Training:
- in total, we had 15 hours of training; we had an all-day training on facilitation, and then we as CDLs led trainings on the topics we covered in class (i.e., I led a training on immigration & migration)
- we had our online blog where we chronicled our experiences and an opportunity to meet Susan Pliner
- about 3 joint sessions with faculty where we discussed what we would be doing
- we were also given a book on facilitation at the start of the semester

11. Faculty Training Three sessions Guest speaker Showcase
Book of choice on facilitation
Debrief

12. Jonathan’s Example—CMST 3300
VULNERABLE POPULATIONS:
- created a scenario in which the students broke off into groups
- purpose: understand the vulnerable population of being an immigrant--how do you speak to those populations when you're working in journalism or advertisement
MEDIA INFLUENCE IN SOCIETY:
- how has the media influenced the way we communicate & think about certain populations
- presented a binary between dominant and subordinate groups where students broke off into small groups and then reported back
BOTH WERE SELF-REFLECTIVE ON THE SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH YEARS STUDENTS PROFESSIONS IN THE COMMUNICATIONS COLLEGE
Class Topic:
Understanding An Audience—Vulnerable Populations
Class Topic:
Media Influence on Perceptions of Others

13. Jonathan’s Example—NURS 1001
COMMUNICATION IN HEALTH PROFESSIONS:
- discussed code switching and the difference between descriptive and pejorative words
- how can we as health professionals work to be conscious of how we talk with people different from us?
- why is it important to understand this?
RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY
- additional discussion on how religion and sprituality plays into the patients we work with
- acknowledging our experiences are not the same for those who do not share our same religion
- learning to respect decisions of those individuals
Class Topic:
Communicating in the Health Professions
Class Topic:
Religion and Spirituality

14. Other Examples of Course Integration
Large and small group facilitation
Lesson planning
Online discussions
Grading
Preparation on group project

15. Lessons Learned Dedication and intentionality
Hard to get past the choir
Limited peer resistance
Dialogue improved the quality of student work
Value of peer led, modeling
Faculty struggled to integrate students
More intentional discussion, built into syllabus
More training prior to the semester- students wanted more time and training
Incentivizing faculty

16. How might you do something similar on your campus?
Discussion
How might you do something similar on your campus?