Harriett Steinbach is passionate about democracy. Really passionate about it.
“I have a forever hopeful belief in democracy,” Steinbach said. “It’s just who I am, and I can’t explain it. It’s sort of intrinsic and emotional, but I just have to believe in democracy, and I have to believe in what our country can be.”
When political polarization and tensions increased following the 2016 election, Steinbach, assistant director at Illinois State University’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE), began to look for ways to address that polarization on her own campus. Her passion, as well as that of colleague Christine Bruckner, ultimately led to the creation of the Deliberative Dialogues program at CCE.
Deliberative Dialogues are guided conversations on a variety of topics often difficult to discuss. The program uses issue guides from the National Issues Forum Institute (NIFI) to direct conversations among small groups. Participants practice conversational skills as they learn to respect and appreciate the perspectives of others.
While the topics themselves might be polarizing, the format of the dialogue and corresponding issue reframes the topic in an effort to remove that polarization.
“The goal of a dialogue is not to change someone’s mind about where they stand,” said Bruckner, assistant director of assessment and data management at CCE. “The goal is to better understand where other people are coming from. In many cases, that can strengthen your views, not minimize them. It makes you more informed in that you’re more cognizant of others’ experiences and perspectives.”
Each dialogue begins with an introduction from a facilitator that includes ground rules to guide the discussion and an overview of the structure of the conversation. Each participant then briefly describes their personal stake in the topic before the group discusses three different options outlined in the issue guide and how those options could or could not solve the issue. Finally, the group reflects on the options overall as well as on the experience.
The program launched in spring 2020 with four pilot dialogues, and it has grown exponentially since. To date, CCE staff have facilitated 178 dialogues in classes, with student groups, for university departments, and in campus-community settings. A total of 1,648 individuals have participated.
During the fall 2021 semester alone, 77 dialogues were held among 36 different groups. Participants included 703 students, 15 faculty/staff, and four community members.
The program has quickly grown to surpass CCE staff capacity. Several faculty and staff members across campus have been trained to facilitate dialogues, but scheduling conflicts regularly occur. So, in an effort to support the growing program, CCE recently hired its first cohort of 10 undergraduate students to serve as student facilitators for Deliberative Dialogues.
“They will be able to contribute to the depolarization of our country as they go out into their own communities after graduation.”
Harriett Steinbach
“This isn’t just about fixing our capacity problem,” Steinbach said. “It also takes our dialogue program at Illinois State to the next level, because our students and our student facilitators get this tremendous experience. Peer-to-peer conversation can be extremely valuable. And I think in some cases the student facilitator can relate better to the participants.”
The student facilitators were trained and began facilitating dialogues in fall 2021.
“I think it maximizes the impact of dialogues,” she said. “It also impacts our student facilitators through the skills and experience they gain by directing dialogues. They will be able to contribute to the depolarization of our country as they go out into their own communities after graduation.”
The idea of bringing Deliberative Dialogues to Illinois State began when Steinbach and Bruckner participated in a dialogue on community safety and justice as part of a plenary session at the 2017 Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.
“It was really impactful for me because it was close to the time of the Philando Castile murder, and a wave of police violence, particularly on Black men, had made national news,” Steinbach said. “What really captivated me with the dialogue is how they reframed the topic. The question wasn’t, ‘Are you for or against the police?’ It was completely reframed to focus on achieving safe communities. And I found that fascinating.”
The experience made an impact on Bruckner as well.
“I remember feeling very uncomfortable about the topic,” Bruckner said. “But after we went through everyone’s personal stake on the issue and we heard, ‘My son is a police officer,’ or ‘I’ve had neighbors and friends who have been mistreated,’ I realized that our perspectives were literally coming from all over the place. And it was interesting to hear how all of those perspectives informed some of the thoughts each person had on the options that we discussed.”
In the fall semester following the CLDE Conference, Bruckner decided to incorporate dialogue into a section of IDS 125: Introduction to Civic Engagement. She studied facilitation resources on the NIFI website and designed a variation of the guided conversation for her students that would fit within the class period.
After attending another conference with a plenary session focused on depolarizing the national political climate, Steinbach began to think about the implications dialogues could have at Illinois State. She had an intern benchmark other institutions and organizations with various programs using models of guided conversations. She then formed a think tank of faculty and staff to discuss options and models.
As Steinbach’s think tank convened, Bruckner continued to research and revise the model of conversation she used within her IDS 125 course. When she taught a section of COM 110: Communication as Critical Inquiry, she again incorporated a dialogue. This time, Steinbach assisted in facilitating the discussion for half of Bruckner’s students.
At the time, leaders of University College’s IDS 128: Thriving in College, Career, and Beyond course were looking to incorporate additional civic engagement into the course curriculum.
Conversations among Steinbach, Bruckner, and University College staff about additional civic engagement opportunities for IDS 128 students led to later discussions about changing the debate portion of the course curriculum into a Deliberative Dialogue.
In spring 2020, Deliberative Dialogues were piloted in four sections of IDS 128. They became part of the official curriculum in fall 2020 after student and instructor feedback from the pilot indicated the dialogues were an overwhelmingly positive active learning experience for the students.
“I love the collaboration we have with the IDS 128 first-year seminars,” Bruckner said. “I think it’s a great community-building tool for these students. I wish it could be an experience all first-year students have just because of the sense of community it can build.”
Since fall 2020, additional faculty and staff have requested dialogues for their classes, groups, and departments. While the program still uses NIFI issue guides as a basis for each dialogue, Bruckner and Steinbach have continued to refine the overall model to allow for varied time requirements as well as different preflection and reflection processes to coincide with the needs of different participant groups.
Looking to the future, Steinbach and Bruckner hope to expand Deliberative Dialogues into more courses within academic programs.
“My hope is that we’re able to provide more of these experiences to additional students,” Bruckner said. “The variety of issue guides available means that we could cover almost any topic. And there are resources out there about how to create your own.”
Bruckner is also looking to the future in terms of program assessment. To date, student, instructor, and facilitator surveys and feedback have only been evaluated for program improvement and an assessment of student learning.
Steinbach and Bruckner are in the process of planning a research study on the various effects of Deliberative Dialogue participation that incorporates Institutional Review board approval. That way the model can be shared more widely in ways helpful to other institutions.
“I feel like we have a responsibility as an institution, as a department, to give students experiences where they can practice these skills,” Steinbach said. “My vision is that Illinois State students can have these experiences and then go out into the world and engage across political differences and make a contribution that helps to depolarize our country. Ultimately, that’s my vision. That’s what motivates me to do this work.”
Get involved with Deliberative Dialogues at Illinois State
Visit the CCE website to read student comments about Deliberative Dialogues and to request a dialogue for your class or group.
Are you a faculty or staff member interested in being trained to facilitate dialogues? Contact Harriett Steinbach at hmstein@IllinoisState.edu.
Help ensure the future of the student facilitator program by making a donation to the Center for Civic Engagement.
