Diversity in university classrooms, departments, and centers presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is that faculty, students, and staff all experience conflict and tension related to the different views and lived experiences represented in these spaces. The opportunity is that by increasing cognitive empathy, or perspective taking skills, conflict and tension can be leveraged to enhance teaching, learning, and belonging for everyone. Research supports Intergroup dialogue (IGD) as an effective means to increase cognitive empathy.
Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) is an academic initiative for leveraging diversity as an institutional resource and an evidence-based strategy for moving the campus climate needle. IGD has been implemented in various formats on campuses across the country including Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, University of Cincinnati, Bowling Green State, Ohio State, and University of Toledo. Based on a theoretical model developed and researched for over 30 years by a cohort of 9 peer institutions*, IGD brings together participants from different social identity groups in a sustained and facilitated learning environment. Through sustained dialogue with diverse peers that integrates content learning and experiential knowledge, IGD encourages participants to be intellectually challenged and emotionally engaged. These facilitated relationships influence participants' understanding of their own and others' experiences in society and cultivate individual allyship and collective agency to affect social change.
*Multi-University Consortium: Arizona State University; Occidental College; Syracuse University; University of California, San Diego; University of Maryland; University of Massachusetts at Amherst; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; University of Texas, Austin; and University of Washington, Seattle.
Like other IGD programs, ChangeMakers is based on the following 4-stage model and 7 learning goals:
1. Clarify the meaning of “dialogue” and other forms of communication.
2. Establish the foundations for honest and meaningful dialogue.
3. Increase awareness of multiple social group memberships and dynamics of inequalities.
4. Promote understanding of the systemic basis of group differences in perceptions and experiences.
Activities:
5. Encourage analysis of systems of privilege, power, and oppression.
6. Explore some of the roots of conflicting perceptions and experiences (historical, cultural, institutional, interpersonal).
Activities:
7. Next Steps for participants who wish to move from dialogue to action and from agents of oppression to allies of liberation.
Activities:
Since the spring of 2019, Global Initiatives, through its Center for American and World Cultures (CAWC) has provided IGD experiences to students through three formats including a 3-credit course, IDS 253: Voices of Discovery: Intergroup Dialogue, which is offered in the spring and fall semesters. Faculty members can embed a shorter version of IGD into existing undergraduate or graduate-level courses through one of the following two options:
To request a consultation about options for embedding IGD into your course, please contact Tarah Trueblood (ttrueblood@MiamiOH.edu).
There is an increasing number of student IGD programs nationwide which presents an opportunity to assess the value of a diversity education effort across institutions. Success in delivering learning goals for Voices has been assessed since inception by Miami’s Discovery Center using a national multi-university evaluation survey tool. Voices is also evaluated through CQ, a cultural intelligence instrument implemented at Farmer School of Business.
As stated in the most recent evaluation report of the Discovery Center, when combining all of the prior semesters of student survey data:
Voices students reported gains consistent with those of the peer institution cohort in many significant measures. Voices students reported larger positive changes in communicating with people from other groups, confidence levels of taking self- and other-directed actions, confidence levels of intergroup collaboration, anticipated post-college involvement in redressing inequalities, involvement in social justice activities at Miami, and skills in dealing with conflict.
Assessment data show that IDS 253, IDS 151, and ITV all yield learning outcome gains.
Voices is the result of CAWC collaborations with various campus partners including Black World Studies, Farmers School of Business, Global Intercultural Studies, Justice & Community Studies, KICKGLASS CQ, META Collective, Office of Diversity Affairs, Psychology, and Residence Life.
Glenn Chundrlek, Project Management Specialist
Leah Harris, Manager, Advanced Computing and Systems Operations
Steven Harvey, Support Analyst II
Eboney Kimbrough, Application Analyst II
Sharita Massie, Interim Manager, Application Development
Autumn Meade, Accessible Technology Coordinator
Elizabeth Parsons, Digital Content Specialist
Hannah Sroka, Student
Madeline Whistler, Student
Amber Franklin, Associate Professor, Speech Pathology & Audiology
Daniela Inclezan, Associate Professor, Computer Science and Software Engineering
Spencer Izor, Senior Director Development, Annual Giving, University Advancement
Caroline Shipley, Visiting Assistant Professor, Spanish And Portuguese
Dasha Wood, Director, Student Diversity and Inclusion
Karen Yates, Coordinator, Disability Services, Regional Student Services
Tekeia Howard, Director, Career Equity and Access, Center for Career Exploration & Success
Tarah Trueblood, Director, Center for American and World Cultures, Global Initiatives
The training that the CAWC provided to CCES co-facilitators was very impactful and is often referenced in ongoing conversations about diversity, equity, access, inclusion and belonging. I highly recommend the [ChangeMakers] model of IGD as it has a balance of education and prescriptive direction that provides a path forward for those who may be newer to IDG and facilitation in general.
Tekeia Howard
The Voices and ChangeMakers programs seek to advance the 2020 Presidential Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force Recommendations, Pillar 1 (Dialogue and Allyship), Recommendation 2: Expand IGD to include peer cohorts of faculty, staff, and administrators. This recommendation aligns with MiamiRISE Strategic Plan numbers 2, 3, and 4: Enhance cross-unit curricular collaborations; Cultivate cross-disciplinary research; and Position Miami as a teaching and learning national resource.
