The Dialogic Classroom: Holding the Door Open for Hope

Abstract

Schools are an essential institution for providing education and direction for children and youth. A key learning is how to engage in civil dialogue intertwined with hope for the future. At the heart of civil dialogue in a classroom are large topics referred to as “public moral [stories] … moral in the sense that [they are] founded on ultimate questions—of life and death, of how persons should be treated, preferred patterns of living” (Fisher, 1994, p. 173). These existential stories and their emergent questions are eloquent and can excite and engage even reluctant participants who otherwise might find themselves concerned with whether their answers are right or wrong. In the dialogic classroom, teachers create life-giving safe spaces and containers where students can be vulnerable, take risks, and change their minds as they listen and reflect mindfully. The container takes the form of a circle, like sitting around a campfire where each participant has a unique perspective based on their relationship with the fire. Participants understand that there are things outside their unique relationship and experience with the stories that they cannot fully know. Questions arrive without pre-formed answers and generate new questions in dialogue’s multiple languages and voices. Each voice brings a different sensibility to the conversations. Dialogue includes community and communion in the form of koinonia, where participants trust one another without knowing each other fully.

Keywords

• hope
• peace
• dialogue
• education
• civil dialogue
• classic rhetoric