CHSE601

Difficult Dialogues are one of several frameworks and practices that help us grapple with challenging and sensitive issues in a variety of fields of study. Difficult dialogues are planned, purposeful educational interactions between individuals with divergent attitudes, beliefs, values, backgrounds, perspectives, and/or worldviews about complex social and moral dilemmas or controversies (Worthington & Arevalo-Avalos, 2016). The course aims to create space for learners to foster greater understanding of personal and cultural complexities of academic communities, encourage a greater willingness to engage in evidence-based open discourse, and advance towards the resolution of social problems. The course is distributed across seminar, discussion and experiential learning activities, in which students research controversial topics in higher education, develop skills to facilitate dialogues across a variety of settings, and engage in facilitation of dialogues.