Office Hours
Civic Discourse as a Tool to Create Community
Director of Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility Romy Hübler explains how to use dialogue to promote civic discourse.
Civic discourse is a way to foster a community of belonging. It creates an understanding of and considers potential solutions to cultural norms, structures and complex systems that create and sustain challenging societal problems.
Here at TU, we’re using restorative practices and dialogue tools to support civic discourse, so we can listen to understand and recognize we have a shared humanity with the people we are in community with. Even though we might have different ideas or solutions to our challenges, it’s important to learn from one another.
Civic discourse is different from a debate because it is not about being right or wrong or winning an argument.
Civic discourse is different from a debate because it is not about being right or wrong or winning an argument.
We are as a society not equipped to engage in conversations with people who might think differently or have opposing views. There have been rifts in families and even between folks who have been friends for a long time. Or there’s an agreement to just not talk about it. That’s challenging. If we are not engaging in conversations about the things we care about, then we’re showing up as a version of ourselves that does not share the things that really move us.
If you only feel comfortable being your full self in spaces with people who have the same beliefs, then are you just stuck in that bubble?
Restorative practices is a perspective that prioritizes shared power and responsibility, challenging all members of a community to do things with others rather than to them or for them. It’s a skill set that focuses on community building, inclusive decision-making and shared accountability. The practice uses techniques like restorative questioning, consensus building and affective statements.
Dialogue is a perspective that prioritizes opportunities to learn more about one another, our identities, our experiences and our views. As a skillset it focuses on practicing deep listening and suspension of judgment, navigating challenging moments by turning to introspection and learning through curiosity and asking open-ended questions.
We have opportunities for faculty, staff and students to learn these skill sets and to participate in programming where dialogue and restorative practices are used. There are many ways this is already happening on campus, including the civic renewal fellowship, where we’re training undergraduate and graduate students in dialogue and restorative practices so they can lead civic discourse conversations.
Mostly through our TU Community Conversations, we’re bringing folks together on issues that impact the campus—whether that is food access, housing access or current issues.
Restorative practices prioritize shared power and responsibility. Dialogue prioritizes opportunities to learn more about one another, our identities, our experiences and our views.
Dialogue and restorative practices are used across campus in many ways, including in how resident assistants and orientation leaders are trained. There’s the restorative practices steering committee that hosts trainings throughout the year to help faculty and staff think through how they can incorporate it in the classroom, in their staff meetings, in their work with students. The Office of Inclusive Excellence Education and Support, in partnership with the Office of the Provost, coordinates Dialogue@TU and provides dialogue training for faculty and staff.
One of the key ways they can do so is to develop and share community standards for interactions: agreed upon ways to participate in the conversation. It includes using I statements versus generalizations, foregrounding stories versus facts and engaging in a community or circle for dialogue.
It also means not talking over someone else who is speaking. A lot of times when it’s a debate that involves multiple people, the person who’s the loudest and the fastest will get all the airtime, and then folks who might be more observant in making connections won’t find a way in. So we’re missing a lot of potentially important contributions.
Setting community standards ahead of discussions gives you a clear path for dialogue, because if you don’t know what the people you’re in conversation with are expecting, it’s really hard to figure out standards in the moment.
Leaning into curiosity is another community standard. When you feel like something you hear isn’t landing right with you, you respond by saying something like, “Oh, I’m curious. Can you tell me more about that?”
The largest tip is to be open to participating this way. It is different from how we normally have conversations, and it takes practice.
Setting community standards ahead of discussions gives you a clear path for dialogue, because if you don’t know what the people you’re in conversation with are expecting, it’s really hard to figure out standards in the moment. Know that there are legitimate structures out there to use that counteract the division we are experiencing. But to use them, we have to lean into our own vulnerability and curiosity.