Relation of Open Inquiry to Civic Dialogue
Why is this issue or statement important to me?
How has my experience affected how I feel?
Is this issue a top priority for me?
Are any topics missing?
What impact does this issue have for me and the community at-large?
What are the different perspectives regarding this issue?
How can we determine which perspectives surrounding this issue have the most relevance, make the most sense, and ultimately help to resolve the controversial issue?
How can we respect and perhaps even incorporate different opinions?
Where can we go to learn more about this issue?
How can we reflect meaningfully about our experiences regarding this issue?
Dialogue and open inquiry emphasize listening, honesty and open-mindedness. In order to keep a dialogue from becoming an adversarial debate or non-personal discussion, ground rules must be established and agreed upon by the group. Generally, a list of ground rules are given to the group, with the understanding that they may omit or add any rules as they see fit. Dialogue and open inquiry groups tend to keep basic ground rules such as those suggested below, and many groups add several of their own. It is important to review the ground rules at the beginning of each dialogue, and for the facilitator to intervene when ground rules are broken to the detriment of the group.
After the ground rules have been established, students should conduct research on the social issue. While the students have probably heard of the issue to be discussed, most will not know the intricate details of the issue. Therefore, in-depth research is necessary. Students should not only be well-versed on the side in which they are predisposed, but they should also thoroughly research the conflicting side of the issue as well. This will:
Once research has been conducted on the issue, students will now be able to engage in a discussion about the issue. Students should be assigned points-of-view to advocate during the class. These perspectives should be based on information gathered during the research process.
The group should begin discussing the issue at-hand. Students will take turns commenting on their perspective of the issue. A combination of emotion and reason should occur with the arguments presented (Ryfe, 2003). Students should be able to articulate both the logical as well as the emotional reasons for their perspective of the issue.
Dialogue-to-Change Model (pdf)
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