Research Guides: Anti-Black Racism Pedagogical Collection: Risks and Rewards: Navigating Constructive Dialogue in the Classroom

Risks and Rewards: Navigating Constructive Dialogue in the Classroom

This section of the LibGuide offers instructors, staff, and students scholarly resources on facilitating constructive conversations in the classroom. The materials were carefully selected to support those interested in creating a courageous space where challenging topics can be discussed respectfully and productively. These evidence-based resources provide frameworks, practical approaches, and reflection tools that can guide you in developing the skills needed to navigate difficult dialogues. We hope these resources will support you on your journey to facilitate meaningful conversations that promote authentic sharing, learning, and growth.

Books and Edited Book Chapters

Race talk and the conspiracy of silence: Understanding and facilitating difficult dialogues on race by Derald Wing Sue
Call Number: Online Ebook

ISBN: 9781118959657

Publication Date: 2015

"Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence" examines the complexities of conducting challenging conversations about race, racism, and racial identity within higher education environments. Through illuminating vignettes, practical examples and the analysis of cultural and racial myths, Sue establishes a comprehensive foundation for frameworks that enable constructive and deliberate racial discourse in higher education settings. This resource proves invaluable for instructors seeking effective methodologies to engage in meaningful dialogue about race within academic settings as well as facilitate conversations that bridge the racial divide by fostering cross-cultural understanding and awareness. In addition to the vignettes, each chapter includes self-reflection questions that can prompt deeper self-awareness and encourage personal growth and competence. Additionally, the book equips educators with practical tools to intentionally foster understanding and create brave spaces that encourage honest yet respectful exchanges, ultimately building capacity for anti-racist action and sustainable institutional change.
Try to love the questions: From debate to dialogue in classrooms and life by Lara Schwartz
Call Number: Online Ebook

ISBN: 9780691240015

Publication Date: 2024

Lara Schwartz delivers an essential guide that examines the barriers that prevent effective classroom dialogue while offering a robust framework for both students and faculty to engage in respectful, inclusive communication. Schwartz redefines listening and speaking as liberating communication skills that are essential for meaningful exchange. In an era of increasingly polarized discussions in academic spaces, educators can leverage this resource to facilitate productive conversations around politically charged topics in educational settings, with the explicit goal of understanding—rather than dismissing—opposing perspectives. Schwartz articulates three fundamental principles that govern constructive discourse and social progress in higher education that include: free expression, academic freedom, and academic dialogue, encouraging students to cultivate a mindset of genuine inquiry of love questions that fosters care and open communication that looks to understand rather than challenge or debate. The text empowers both students and instructors with strategies centered on posing and responding to questions with integrity and compassion and promotes engaging in self-reflection. Additionally, Schwartz provides practical writing exercises and discussion prompts that foster critical reflection and build proficiency in productive and good-faith dialogue.
The discussion book: 50 great ways to get people talking by Stephen Brookfield
Call Number: Online Ebook

ISBN: 9781119049715

Publication Date: 2016

Brookfield and Preskill offer educators practical and inclusive techniques to facilitate meaningful dialogue that promotes student engagement in the classroom. The book introduces 50 diverse structured activities and methods that can be implemented across various disciplines. Each strategy is defined and thoroughly explained providing a rationale and suggestions to properly implement these discussion techniques into the classroom.
Educators can utilize this resource to access several tools to constructively address sensitive or polarizing discussion topics. Additionally, the approaches are straightforward yet versatile enough to support challenging conversations in the classroom that encourage respectful dialogue while developing critical thinking skills in a supportive classroom environment. For example, a few effective techniques for facilitating difficult conversations in the classroom that are outlined in the text include:
1. Circle of Voices - Students form small circles where each person speaks uninterrupted for a set time before open discussion begins, ensuring all voices are heard on controversial topics.
2. Snowballing - Students start in pairs discussing a controversial topic, then join with another pair, then another, gradually building consensus while preserving diverse perspectives.
3. Hatful of Quotes: Instructors place diverse quotes in a container, and students randomly select one, read it aloud, and share their reaction, sparking broader classroom discussion.
4. Critical Debate - Students are assigned positions that may differ from their personal views, helping them understand multiple perspectives on contentious issues.
5. Strategic Questioning - A structured sequence of increasingly deeper questions that moves conversations from facts to feelings to possibilities for action.
These structured approaches can transform challenging classroom discussions into productive learning experiences that can gradually build from lower-stakes conversations to more complex dialogue about race, politics, geopolitics, or other polarizing subjects. Brookfield and Preskill offer instructors a number of concrete tools that ensure respectful dialogue while deepening student engagement with controversial and sensitive topics.
Encountering faith in the classroom: Turning difficult discussions into constructive engagement by Miriam Rosalyn Diamond (ed.)
Call Number: 379.28 E562 (OISE LIbrary)

ISBN: 9781579222376

Publication Date: 2008

The purpose of this book is to explore what happens―and what can happen―in the higher education, classroom when course content meets or collides with students' religious beliefs. It also considers the impact on learning in an environment where students may feel threatened, angry, misunderstood, or in which they feel their convictions are being discredited. This resource offers educators ways of conceptualizing, engaging with, and responding to, student beliefs. Divided into three sections, this book explores religious discussions in academia through: student perspectives, general guidelines for engaging religious beliefs, and provides discipline-specific examples. Contributors from diverse institutions share approaches to navigating religious discussions in classroom settings.

Educators can utilize the resounding lessons of this book are the importance of creating a learning space in which students can express their beliefs, dissonance, and emotions constructively, without fear of retribution; and of establishing ground rules of respectful discussion for this process to be valuable and productive. Educators can use this book as a practical guide for navigating the controversial, sensitive―yet illuminating―lessons that can be learned when religion takes a seat in the classroom.
Stop talking: Indigenous ways of teaching and learning and difficult dialogues in higher education by Larry Merculieff
Call Number: LB2331 .M47 2013 (UTSC Library)

ISBN: 9780970284501

Publication Date: 2013

This book documents a distinctive three-day workshop series on integrating Indigenous pedagogies into Western academic environments. Through their thorough documentation and evaluation, Merculieff and Roderick provide educators with practical Indigenous strategies that directly enhance classroom practices for facilitating difficult dialogues. The text models Indigenous practices that instructors can readily adapt into their course design—moving beyond performative inclusion toward meaningful student engagement. Embedded throughout the text, instructors will find immediately applicable classroom exercises, outdoor activities, and reflection tools grounded in Indigenous traditions that create environments conducive to respectful dialogue about challenging topics. The activities are presented with step-by-step guidance that enables instructors to adapt them to various disciplines and classroom contexts. Additionally, the Critical Incident Questionnaire featured in the book serves as both an exemplary and a practical tool that faculty can immediately implement for formative assessment. This reflective instrument allows instructors to gauge student engagement with challenging material while modeling the kind of self-examination central to cross-cultural understanding. For educators struggling with facilitating conversations about race, colonization, cultural appropriation, or environmental justice, this resource provides structured approaches that encourages authentic engagement with difficult truths.
Turning to one another by Margaret J. Wheatley
Call Number: Online Audio Book

ISBN: 9781469032405

Publication Date: 2008

In Wheatley's "Turning to One Another," educators gain practical tools for creating inclusive classroom environments where meaningful dialogue flourishes. The book centers on two key practices - deep listening and genuine curiosity, which instructors can immediately implement to transform classroom discussions. Most importantly, Wheatley offers a structured methodology to move interactions beyond competitive debate toward collaborative meaning-making, providing specific techniques that emphasize listening rather than persuasion—an essential skill set for navigating today's polarized discussions. Educators can use this approach to establish clear norms supporting vulnerability and authentic sharing, particularly valuable when facilitating conversations about complex social issues. Instructors will find the framework especially beneficial for creating brave spaces where students feel empowered to engage with challenging topics across diverse perspectives and disciplines. The book provides ready-to-use discussion prompts that can be adapted by instructors across various disciplines to encourage critical reflection. This practical guide fosters meaningful classroom dialogue through its three-part structure: exploring the foundational elements of productive conversation, providing reflective prompts to prepare students for deeper engagement, and offering tested conversation starters that encourage learners to share their authentic perspectives.
How to engage in difficult conversations on identity, race, and politics in higher education: A practical guide for faculty by Tammy L. Hodo, Poppy Fitch, Brian Van Brunt and Jacques Whitfield
Call Number: Online Ebook

ISBN: 9781003223283

Publication Date: 2023

How to Engage in Difficult Conversations on Identity, Race, and Politics in Higher Education addresses the polarized political and racialized climate in America today. This practical resource offers faculty and staff much needed direction related to hosting difficult conversations as they occur in the classroom, residence halls, orientation events, and coffee shops around college and university campuses. Chapters provide insights, case examples, interactive exercises, and "how-to" tools and tips to having these conversations, covering issues about immigration, white supremacy in academia, women's rights, Black Lives Matter movement, Trans Rights, reproductive rights, cancel culture, among many others. This resource is designed to better prepare instructors, faculty, higher education staff and administrators to enter into these hard conversations with an improved awareness of contentious issues and how to facilitate, and potentially de-escalate, discussions that are already occurring.

Additional Suggested Books

Discussion as a way of teaching: Tools and techniques for democratic classrooms by Stephen Brookfield and Stephen Preskill
Call Number: Online Ebook

ISBN: 0787978086

Publication Date: 2005
Open minds to equality: A sourcebook of learning activities to affirm diversity and promote equity by Nancy Schniedewind and Ellen Davidson
Call Number: OISE Library 305 S361o 2006

ISBN: 9780942961324

Publication Date: 2006
From safe spaces to brave spaces: A new way to frame dialogue around diversity and social justice by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens
Call Number: Online Book Chapter

Publication Date: 2013

In 'The art of effective facilitation : reflections from social justice educators'

Journal Articles

Chan, C. (2024). Teaching about marginalized groups using a digital human library: Lessons learned. Social Sciences (Basel), 13(6), 308. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13060308

Espinosa de los Monteros, P., & Longmeier, M. M. (2023). Developing globally inclusive practices for library instruction sessions. The New Review of Academic Librarianship, 29(2), 152–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614533.2022.2095289

Hakkola, L., & Rosenbaum, J. E. (2024). Communicating about diversity: Challenges and strategies related to integrating race into the rural higher education classroom. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 48(6), 567–581. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2024.2375302

Sensoy, O., & DiAngelo, R. (2014). Respect differences? Challenging the common guidelines in social justice education. Democracy & Education, 22(2), Article 1. https://democracyeducationjournal.org/home/vol22/iss2/1

Severiens, S., & Daly, C. (2024). ‘We need to do more’: Preparing teachers for diverse classrooms in England. Equity in Education & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/27526461241303173

Sridhar, A. (2024). Academic freedom as content moderation: A framework in favor of individual rights and institutional autonomy. Innovative Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-024-09751-3

Online Resources

Education and Training Opportunities

Canadian University Resources

Managing Difficult Conversations (Queen's University)
Conflict Competence (Nova Scotia Health)
Teacher Resources (VLC-UCDSB)
Managing Difficult Conversations (UofT)
Teaching & Learning Resources at Camosun: Classroom Management (CAMOSUN College)
Difficult Conversations in the Classroom (University of Manitoba)
Difficult Conversations in the Classroom (Guelph University)
Facilitating Dialogue and Challenging Conversations in the Classroom (York University)
Working Group on Civil Discourse, Division of the Vice-President & Provost (University of Toronto)
Retired Judge Marion Buller Advises Students to Ask Questions, Seek Truth, and be Brave (University of Toronto)

Additional Resources

Difficult Dialogues (University of Connecticut)
Resources for Facilitating, Navigating, and Managing Difficult Classroom Conversations (University of Miami)
Guidelines for Discussing Difficult or High-Stakes Topics (University of Michigan)
Navigating Difficult Conversations in the Classroom (Kent State University)
Managing Difficult Classroom Discussions (Indianna University)
Difficult Dialogues (University of Delaware)
Media Literacy Professional Learning Community: Difficult Conversations in the Classroom (Red Rocks Community College)
Resources for Facilitating, Navigating, and Managing Difficult Classroom Conversations (College of Staten Island)
Challenging Discussions (University of California - Irvine)
Facilitating Challenging Conversations in the Classroom (Washington University - St. Louis)

Teaching Resource Guides

Teaching During Global and Geopolitical Crisis (University of Alberta)
Inclusive dialogue in education: a tutor's guide to facilitating constructive discourse (London's Global University)
Straight A's for Facilitating Discussions about Diversity and Social Justice (Dr. Diane J. Goodman)

Videos

Guide to Navigating Tough Conversations (Ohio State)
Difficult Conversations in the Classroom with Dr. Trysh Travis (University of Florida)
Student Panel: Navigating the Tough Topics in Class Discussion (Oakland University)

Constructive Dialogue Frameworks

Responding to Microaggressions in the Classroom: Taking ACTION (from Faculty Focus newsletter)
How to Respond to Racial Microaggressions When They Occur (CORA Learning)