Difficult Conversations – On-Demand Training

Teach Students Skills for Meaningful Dialogue

Today's college students arrive on campus with strong opinions but limited experience navigating disagreement. Conversations about identity, politics, current events, and controversial topics often become polarized, shut down entirely, or leave students feeling anxious and disconnected. At the same time, faculty, staff and administrators are increasingly expected to create learning environments where meaningful dialogue can occur while balancing student wellbeing, educational dynamics, and institutional expectations.

This practical webinar is designed to equip faculty, student affairs professionals and other academic leaders with evidence-informed strategies for transforming difficult conversations into meaningful learning opportunities. Rather than avoiding challenging topics, participants will discover how structured dialogue can strengthen critical thinking, foster belonging, reduce polarization, and deepen student engagement across disciplines.

Drawing from dialogue facilitation techniques, our two expert presenters, Rhonda Fitzgerald, the Executive Director of the Sustained Dialogue Institute (SDI) and Marit Dewhurst, the Director of Art Education and Professor of Art and Museum Education at The City College of New York, will introduce practical strategies that you can immediately incorporate into classrooms, co-curricular programs and campus conversations. You will learn how to facilitate discussions across differences, respond to misinformation without escalating conflict, encourage respectful participation from diverse perspectives, and help students develop the communication skills essential for success in college, the workplace and civic life.

Topics Covered

Gain tools and strategies to help you:

• Utilize practical instructional techniques, adaptable dialogue frameworks, and a shared vocabulary for fostering productive conversations that support learning, connection and student success – both inside and outside of the classroom.
• Teach students how to ask curiosity-based questions, listen with empathy, suspend judgment and disagree diplomatically.
• Challenge students to regulate their emotions by developing skills to handle challenging conversations and ideas with poise and professionalism. 
• Describe features of successful dialogic models, prioritizing collective intelligence and collaborative meaning-making over one-way, authoritative instruction.
• Understand the checklist of skills required to practice and use dialogue in and outside the classroom.
• Use a method for inquiry to keep a group engaged.
• Clarify common misunderstandings, rather than make assumptions.
• Adapt these facilitation moves for both the classroom and informal settings outside of it.
  

Presenters

Rhonda Fitzgerald is Executive Director of the Sustained Dialogue Institute (SDI), where she oversees the reach of the Sustained Dialogue model to new communities, campuses, workplaces, and countries.
Click here for full bio.

 

Marit Dewhurst is the Director of Art Education and Professor of Art and Museum Education at The City College of New York. She has spent years working in cultural organizations, arts spaces, and community centers to facilitate conversations about cultural equity, navigating difference, and building community across social barriers.
Click here for full bio.