{"id":57165,"date":"2023-08-15T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edtechteacher.org\/?p=57165"},"modified":"2024-11-03T11:17:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T16:17:41","slug":"teach-dialogue-skills-to-rebuild-our-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edtechteacher.org\/teach-dialogue-skills-to-rebuild-our-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Teach Dialogue Skills to Rebuild Our Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article originally appeared on MIddleWeb<\/a> 7\/31\/23 you can access the original post here.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former social studies teacher and school leader Shawn McCusker is co-author of Becoming Active Citizens: Practices to Engage Students in Civic Education Across the Curriculum<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019 professor Shawn Rosenberg presented a paper at the annual meeting of the International Society of Political Psychologists in Lisbon. Within a few minutes the crowd became restless and unsettled, their chatter disrupting the session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cause of the disruption was Rosenberg\u2019s thesis. Democracy, he said, cannot survive. It will decline and ultimately fail. He argued that as a society we have increasingly failed to teach people how to navigate the responsibilities that are baked into democracy and as a result this lack of skills has led to the collapse of the moderate center of our society and triggered a desperate shift to right-wing populism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I don\u2019t agree with the premise that there is no hope for democracy, I do agree that our failure to prepare our citizens for the responsibilities of democracy is an existential crisis for our country and our educational system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A recent Pew Research Center study lays out the problem in terms that are simple to understand. Pew found that 45% of US adults (and 58% of people who closely follow political news) have stopped talking politics with someone because of that person\u2019s political beliefs. A great many of us aren\u2019t talking to each other about important issues that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all of this is a problem that schools need to solve, but as teachers we are uniquely positioned to both model and teach the skills that are essential to making sure that Dr. Rosenberg is too pessimistic and that Democracy has a bright future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What We Can Do: Debate v. Dialogue<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The most important thing teachers can do is ensure that our students are capable of engaging in conversations and confident in their beliefs and values while at the same time remaining open to listening to others who they may disagree with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most common way of discussing current and controversial topics is the classroom debate. While I enjoy good debates, they might not be accomplishing what we want them to, and unless we take the time to build foundational skills and dispositions they might actually be getting in our way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a look at the values and behaviors that characterize the classroom debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In DEBATES we try to:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n