Here we explore how navigating conflict through dialogue, debate, and deliberation is essential for deep learning, fostering trust, and developing civic skills in education abroad. We go into the following concepts in depth and include additional resources and exercises to support your learning and program development:

• Learning to Navigate Conflict is a Necessary Part of Deep Learning & Inclusive Practice
• Reckoning with Teaching & Learning as a Social, Cultural, Moral & Political Practice
• Distinguishing Debate from Dialogue & Deliberation
• Cultivating Democratic Habits through Dialogue & Deliberation in Education Abroad

<< Back to ​Addressing Unteachable Moments.

​Learning to Navigate Conflict is a Necessary Part of Deep Learning & Inclusive Practice

All teaching and learning, including Education Abroad (EA) is rooted in relationships. EA relationships may involve a network of individuals and organizations that include students, educators, advisors, host family members, faculty, internship coordinators, mentors or other partners from both the sending and the receiving nation(s), organizations, communities. 

​Disagreement, disequilibrium, contention and conflict are inherent facets of social, cultural, economic and institutional life. Education abroad settings and activities, like other forms of education is a political and moral practice that is carried out across multiple sites (classroom, homestays, advising offices, Zoom rooms, internship sites, etc.) and systems of geographic, cultural and community affiliation (campus, neighborhood, city, region, nation, transnational organizations, etc.).

​​Conflict is a pervasive and important launchpad for learning and action. Conflict in teaching and learning can be experienced:

• individually as an internal dialogue as part of the process of sensemaking;
• interpersonally involving relationships between oneself with others in the EA teaching and learning relationship; or,
• intra or intergroups manifest over elements of civic and collective dimensions of human social and cultural experience (e.g.,). 

​
Conflict can be generative or it can undermine trust, reinforce biases, stereotypes and deepen alienation & marginalization in relationships.  Generative conflict involves working to creates spaces for dialogue where people can move past avoiding conflict or only seeing conflict as destructive.  Setting the conditions to engage in generative conflict invites participants to engage in productive, but often tense conversations. The goal of harnessing generative conflict is to arrive at a fuller understanding of how individuals view the issue and a broader accounts of the facts, to build trust, and when ready, move the conversation forward to developing shared solutions. 

​We can all think of a topic or issue that we try to avoid (e.g. Politics, ideology, race & colorism, religion, faith, climate change, immigration status, grading, etc.) in everyday interactions, in professional and academic settings and with people different from ourselves.  However, by not coming to terms with generative conflict as part of our teaching repertoire, we diminish our ability and effectiveness to effectively mentor and model for students the dispositions, skills and knowledge needed for pluralistic, multi-racial and  to thrive.

---

Practice: Go Deeper

• Adar Cohen -  TED.
• ​Calling in & Calling Up. 
• Johnstone, C., Lachelle Smith, & Malmgren, J. (2020)  Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad. 32(2), p. 120-144.​​

​Reckoning with Teaching & Learning as a Social, Cultural, Moral & Political Practice

As international educators, one of our roles is to support learners in becoming more mindful of the workings of interpretation and culture in their own lives and develop bridges of understanding with members from other groups and ways of life through the lens of a particular topic, profession or field of study. The work of educators, like our students, is culturally and socially positioned.

Teaching and learning in education abroad:

• Is a social and cultural practice. Teaching and learning involves social relationships that play out in both informal and formal settings. Both educators, students and partners come to these relationships with varying awareness of the relationships that are partially shaped by their prior experiences and cultural knowledge. 

• Is a political practice in the sense that it involves international educators, students, onsite staff and other groups in both the sending and receiving communities recognizing and negotiating power and interests across a range of institutional contexts (classrooms, internships sites), systems and  and a variety of informal and formal relationships.   
•  Is a moral practice because our intentions and choices are not value neutral. Decisions we make as educators engage us in making a moral and ethical judgements. Here are some examples of types of choices that are steeped in values:
  • The content to we include/exclude about a topic in our syllabus.
  • The accommodations and locations students will stay in.
  • Who gets a say in evaluating the quality of our program.
  • How we approach grading.

• Our claims to objectivity, independence, humility, freedom, harmony, efficiency, sustainability, mobility all represent examples of values. 
• Our biases are patterned in culturally complex ways that vary with who is involved and the context of the encounter. ​

​
EA, like other forms of experiential education involves students, educators, and host nationals in a set of complex engagements that take place across time and place, and involve multiple dimensions of cultural boundary crossing. Some of these boundaries may be visible and explicit like behaviors, ritual practices, modes of dress, language, architectural designs and the placemaking. Other engage us with tacit dimensions of culture, both our own, as well as other members enrolled in the program and those in host nations and communities.

Culture refers to a shared and negotiated system of meaning informed by knowledge people learn and put into practice by interpreting experience and taking action. Culture includes what we say and do (cultural behavior), what we know & how we relate (cultural ways of knowing and being), what we make and use (cultural artifacts). 

Culture goes beyond spoken language, architecture, mannerisms, modes of dress and systems of government and economics. It also lives in the taken-for-granted beliefs, values, rules, moralities, and behaviors within social groups that feel natural. Because culture includes unspoken or tacit knowledge, we may not be able to readily recognize or describe facets of our own cultural knowledge.  We engage in the work of interpretation often without recognizing that we are doing it. Teaching and learning itself is a form of cultural knowledge. 
​

---

Practice: Go Deeper

Review the resources on the Educators as Learners & Leaders page on our website in addition to the following:

• Brookfield, S. (2016). . Routledge. ​
• Bellis, J., Brandauer, S., Calvert, L.G., Carnine, J., & Overmann, C. (Eds.) (2023). . IIE Center for Access & Equity & Dickinson College.
• Community Based Global Learning Collaborative. 

​Distinguishing Debate from Dialogue & Deliberation

The Standards of Good Practice in Education Abroad (4.4 and 6.1-6.3) point to the importance of preparing students for the work of navigating cultural transitions, including engagement with diverse others; communicating expectations for conduct and consequences of behaviors, and supporting students to interact in respectful, ethical and mindful ways.   

Dialogue and deliberation are building blocks to fostering an inclusive climate, cultures of belonging that are pluralistic and pluricultural. If your program aims to support students in becoming:

• more comfortable with cultural differences,
• more aware of their own standpoints, strengths and limitations,
• more capable of collaborating and working through disagreements in intercultural groups

then, you will want to prioritize offering students adequate guidance, practice time and opportunities for examination of their experiences as your develop and implement the program.  

What is the relationship between debate, dialogue and deliberation?
Debate, dialogue and deliberation refer to specific ways of engaging in discussion with others.  Each differs in their structure and goals although they aren't mutually exclusive and sometimes a discussion may involve elements of two or more of these strategies.

• Debate: A form of communication in which two sides oppose each other and attempt to prove each other wrong.  Debate presumes that there is a right answer and that someone has it. One listens to other side in order to find flaws and counter the other side.  Debate calls for investing wholeheartedly in one's beliefs and for defending one's own assumptions as truth and one's own positions as the best solution to the exclusion of others. ​​
• Dialogue: Open-ended discussion that builds trust and understanding. Through dialogue people are free to speak honestly and disagree respectfully. They are encouraged to consider different points of view but they are not required to reach consensus. Looking at a range of viewpoints can help people work out their differences, overcome a past history of conflict, find areas of common concern, and come up with solutions together.
• Deliberation: Careful consideration of complex issues. When participants move from dialogue to deliberation, they explore the complexity of the issues and the tradeoffs that are necessary to make progress, and they see these issues from the perspective of others as well as themselves. As people consider a range of solutions, they are more likely to come up with action ideas and strategies that make sense in their community, while addressing the needs of others. 
  
  

​ ​​he table below outlines different facets of these three approaches to discussion. You can use it to help you and your students become more conscious when they are engaged in a debate, dialogue or deliberation.

DEBATE	DIALOGUE	DELIBERATION
Core Actions: Express Compete Argue Clarifies Purpose: Persuade Promote opinion Seek majority Framing: Dig in Facilitation: Highly structured Duration: Usually fast Results: Win/lose	Core Actions: Listen Exchange Discuss Clarifies Purpose: Understand Seek understanding Build Relationships Framing: Reach across differences Facilitation: Loose - Flexible Structure Duration: Usually slow Results: No decision	Core Actions: Learn Weigh Choose Clarifies Purpose: Seek common ground Make choices Seek overlap Framing: To make choices together Facilitation: Flexible structure Duration: Usually slow Results: Common ground

---

Practice: Go Deeper

• Take stock of the role of formal and informal discussion in your program.
  • While developing your EA program, consider how often you will include discussion as an element of your program design. This includes the format, goals, and types of discussion you plan to include throughout the program. Is the goal to establish a broader understanding of a phenomenon (ex. non verbal communication styles in Spain, 12th century Mayan monumental architecture, responses to climate migration in Morocco, etc.)? Or is the goal to demonstrate the strength of a particular position? Ask yourself these types of questions.
• Consider using simulations, peer presentations, media meditative practices, and other forms of expression culture to help students develop an explicit awareness of the complex interactions between verbal, non-verbal communication and emotions. Have them begin to make observations of this in their daily lives prior to arriving in the host community.
  • Be mindful that some popular presentations on non-verbal communication may be problematic.
• ​Identify community and student assets.
  • If you can, identify students that have participated in or served as leaders in intergroup or deliberative dialogue in their personal lives or on campus. 
  • Include questions during the application process, during predeparture or during the early weeks of the program.

Additional Resources
Publications:

• Patterson, M.L., Fridlund, A.J. & Crivelli, C. (2023). Journal of Psychological Sciences. 18(6). 
• Merculieff, I. & Roderick, L. (2013). University of Alaska Anchorage Press. ​​
• Ropp, S. (2021).  Blog Post. Accessed 2/1/2024. 

​
Media, Activities & Facilitation Guides:

• . Michigan State University.
• ​ (A primer for engaging in dialogue, including helpful scripts for difficult moments.) Ropp, S.
•  (Connecting with your bodymind for deeper dialogue with self + other.). Ropp, S.
• . The Center for Peace & Conflict Studies.

Cultivating Democratic Habits through Dialogue & Deliberation in Education Abroad

Intercultural learning & global citizenship are often identified as intended outcomes of education abroad programs. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone not only has the right to education but that "education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace." 

Inviting international educators to integrate engagement with democratic principles in everyday life, not just those of the ballot box, involves formal deliberative bodies, but also the messiness of everyday politics in our living rooms, dorms, classrooms, and workplaces.

​Concerns over diversity, equity, justice, and belonging are concerned with attending to and addressing representation and inclusion in group settings. They are also an opportunity to concentrate or redistribute how to make visible the voices of those involved in a group or partnership, how disagreements are to be surfaced and handled, how decisions are made, and how authority for these decisions is distributed. In essence, they are also an opportunity to practice individual and collective self-governance and self-determination.

Practice: Formal, Informal & Intergroup Dialogue

There are many approaches to dialogue, a few of them are listed below.
​

• ​Living Room Conversations:
  • ​​

• . Deardorff, D.
• ​
•   [Conversation Guide] - use predeparture  {Kellogg foundation -   

Many campuses and community organizations/NGOs in the U.S. and abroad have individuals or offices that lead intra and intergroup dialogues. Check around to see who might be ​

Practice: Public Conversations & Deliberative Dialogue

The resources below includes tools, facilitation plans and models that are derived from work inside U.S. based understanding of a pluralist democracy.  These tools and ideas remain salient for use in education abroad for two reasons.

1. , globally and even in the U.S. Connecting experiences abroad to taken-for-granted or unchecked assumptions can help us improve.
2. ​Students return to their home communities and that is where many will apply what they learn. Engaging with dialogue and deliberation and connecting these concepts to expressions of everyday democracy in action, can help students extend the processing of their study abroad experience, and encourage them to connect and reexamine patterns of their lives at home with those those witnessed while abroad.

Practice: Go Deeper

Publications

• Bergan, S., Harkavy, I., Hodges, R., Munck, R., Pinilla, Y. & van't Land, H. (2022). University World News, July 5th.
• Longo, N. (2023). .
• DeGuzman, K. (2024).  AIEA Occasional Paper. ​
• Johnson, M., Titus, B. & Mettifogo, M. (2023).  Training American identity: Engaging on-site staff in diversity, equity & inclusion work. In A house where all belong: Redesigning education abroad for inclusive excellence. ​
• van't Land H. & Bergan, S. (2021).  University World News.

Talking Politics and Polarization

•  Polarization & Extremism Research Lab. American University.
• ​ - Institute for Democracy in Higher Education & the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AACU)​
•  (My News). Ropp, S.​
• ​ (Addressing what’s happening beyond the classroom or office.). Ropp, S.​
•  (A diversity of 9 options). Traut, K.​​
•  (Reminders and more details). Traut, K.

---

​Additional Resources

Supplemental Guideposts
Consider how you might use portions of or adapt the guides and resources below as part of a recruitment strategy, pre-departure or re-entry programming. Look for opportunities to tie the issue to a comparable topic, concept or issues that is a touchstone or point of exploration in your program(s) abroad.

• Check with academic units (political science, global studies, sociology, education, etc.) other student engagement units (diversity, equity and inclusion, civic engagement, etc.) or the campus community engagement offices to see if they already host a dialogue.​
• Alternatively, check in your local community, non-profits, inter-faith, civic engagement and NGOs often are sources for opportunities.  ​
• If you partnering with another entity isn't possible. Remember, you can develop a wrap around framing and debriefing component to the experience to help provide the scaffolding.

Resources:

•   Association of American Colleges & Universities (AACU).  need to adapt to broaden more for use in cross-border settings. 
•  [some of this may be best for hosting conversations among faculty and staff first.] ​​
• National Issues Forum - issue guides includes; guides for moderators; some examples that can link education abroad with locally salient issues in the U.S.  Sample guides:
  •  

Check to see if your institution is part of national/international networks that offer support resources.