When the political becomes personal: Using dialogue and deliberation to foster action.

When the political becomes personal, deliberate dialogue is a fundamental tool that can be used to “dispel stereotypes, build trust, and enable people to be exposed to perspectives that are different from their own” (Heierbacher, p.g 103, n.d). Some of the efforts that Seminole State College of Florida has made to increase dialogue on campus includes our annual Social Justice week, and our recent efforts to create a space to discuss the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election amongst others. Future efforts include a democracy wall that asks students what advice they would give to the next POTUS, political potlucks that allow students to discuss current events, and service learning projects that will continue to keep students engaged in discussion and action around topics that are important to them beyond the inauguration of the 45th president. 

In addition to these efforts, one prominent way that we work to keep students involved in ongoing dialogue on campus is through our Civic Scholars program where we host education forums and discussions around social justice and political topics that invite students and sometimes community members to listen and be heard as they share their experiences related to those topics. As participants of the program, students have the opportunity to engage in dialogue in a small cohort, which prompts them to share their perspectives and experiences with one another about difficult issues we tend to only debate about or avoid entirely. Some of the topics we discuss include immigration, poverty, the school to prison pipeline, environmental injustice, and human rights amongst others. As the coordinator of this program, one of the benefits that go beyond the power of understanding and learning that I get to see from including a civic dialogue portion in the education forums is the influence that dialogue has to lead students to both personal and collaborative action.

An example where I received the pleasure of witnessing dialogue turn into action came after hosting an education forum in collaboration with the Farmworkers Association of Florida (FWAF) on environmental injustice and farmworkers rights. After the education forum, some students who openly spoke about their experiences and their passion for immigration reform and farmworkers rights were met with a group of students who were equally passionate about environmental justice. After learning how the two social challenges correlated, they decided to collaborate on a project with the goal of translating information regarding pesticides and safety hazards into Spanish as a method to help Immigrant farmworkers in Apopka, FL take better safety precautions while working.

As I continue to listen to students discuss their life experiences, the things that bring them joy, the things that anger them, and the things that they are just unwilling to tolerate, I find that so many students have a shared passion and understanding for the same social and political challenges. Such shared passion and understanding are especially important to note in the current political climate where politics have become very personal and many feel divided. This discovery of students having a shared mutual interest prompted me to begin thinking about how I could bring students together to brainstorm opportunities to act more collectively, or in other words, how I could get students to move beyond dialogue and become more deliberate in their discussion in a way that prompts action.

While dialogue and deliberation are closely related, accordingly (Heierbacher, p.g 103, n.d) deliberation focuses more on logic and reasoning to make better decisions. Thus, deliberation can be used for a variety of reasons that go beyond building understanding about complex issues, like fostering innovative solutions to problems and launching action to address public concerns.

In order to introduce an opportunity for students to deliberate on ways to act collectively on concerns. I have invited the idea of hosting a networking event on campus titled “What’s your issue?”  During this networking event, students and perhaps faculty members will receive a space to come together to identify others who hold a shared interest related to a political and or social justice challenge and examine ways to act jointly. It is my hope that through this event students and faculty will find value in dialogue and deliberation that leads the way to take action regarding significant personal and public issues like same-sex marriage, health care, and immigration that may be affected during the next four years and beyond.

References

Heierbracher, Sandy  n.d,

http://www.burtbertram.com/teaching/consultation/Article_12(a)-Dialogue&Deliberation.pdf