THE SHAPE

Topic
Selecting a topic for your dialogue will point the way to many logistical decisions you must make. As the overall purpose of this project is to create dialogues to hear what students have to say about issues of critical importance to the society, a wide range of topics can be considered. The topics of our Sample Dialogues may provide some ideas, however, other topics might be drawn from our list of Hot Topics. Some campuses may elect to host dialogues on issues unique to their campus. Others may select a topic that is of great importance to their community, city or region.

The important point is to select a topic that will engage participants and serve to educate everyone by allowing them to hear different points of view. And if it is your goal/objective to come out of the dialogue with specific plans, select and structure a topic so that action outcomes are likely to occur.

	There are two major types of dialogues: • Those that are process oriented and designed to bring diverse people together and promote understanding of different points of view with no particular efforts to reach consensus or identify courses of action. Issue dialogues, art/film discussions, and book clubs are examples of this type of dialogue • Those that are goal oriented and designed to establish goals, strategies and plans of action. Town hall meetings and public policy dialogues are often structured in this manner.

Goals/Objectives

Dialogues can also be thought of as one-time-events or sustained community-building activity. In some cases, a single dialogue may be enough for everyone to participate and more or less exhaust the topic being discussed. Other dialogues may be designed to be sustained over time, continuing to clarify the issue and deepen participants understanding of the issue. Similarly, a dialogue may be offered one-time-only or may be offered many times, each time reaching a different audience.

Dialogues may be highly structured with much advanced planning, guest speakers with a specific expertise, and formal rules for the dialogue; or dialogues may be very informal, as simple as a concerned group of students gathered in a dorm room or in a dining hall trying to carry on meaningful and respectful conversation about issues of importance.

Dialogue Formats
There are a variety of formats that can be used for your dialogue. The first Sample Dialogue is an example of an open issue dialogue. It makes use of minimal structure relying on a single facilitator and a set of basic questions that hinge on one or more issues and that invite everyone to participate fully. Other dialogues may begin with more content focus to provoke conversation.

	Types of dialogues include: Open issue Guided issue Town hall meeting Public policy dialogue Learning Circle

• Open Issue – A dialogue in which a central theme or question is used to structure the dialogue and the only information presented is presented by the participants.

• Guided Issue – A dialogue that is structured around some outside information that sets the stage for the conversation.

- A speaker (e.g. A congressional representative might be invited to a “conversation with students” which might begin with the representative talking briefly about his or her own work on youth agendas.)
- A film or video (e.g. A dialogue might be designed to follow a screening of a film or video that contains a civic, service or political message,)
- A book or article (e.g. A dialogue might be conducted as a part of an on-going book club or in a manner similar to book clubs in which a book is selected by a group in advance and people come together to discuss the book and its relationships to their lives.)
- An art exhibit (e.g. A civic dialogue might be conducted in connection with a new art exhibit if the art exhibit has civic or political ramifications. For example, an exhibit of the work by Jose Clemente Orozco might serve to foster a dialogue about the experience of immigrants in America.)
- A panel presentation (e.g. A brief presentation by a university administrator, the head of a local non-profit, a political science instructor and a student might serve as a lead-in to a dialogue on Education, Service and Political Change.)

• A Town Hall Meeting - A town hall meeting is a dialogue that is more goals oriented and expects to produce some action or recommendation. (e.g. Students may want to come together about some highly specific issue such as “Student role in the evaluation of faculty” and emerge from the dialogue with concrete factual understanding of the issue and possibly some recommendations for the future. These type meetings generally begin by having one or more people clearly articulate the issue.)

• A Public Policy Dialogue - Unlike other dialogues, Public Policy Dialogues typically are designed to bring together a representative sampling of different leaders that will move an issue to new levels and serve to shape policy. These dialogues have more of an “expert” flare to them than other types of “citizen” gatherings. (e.g. Leaders from student government, student press, and student organizations might gather for a policy dialogue on “Increasing student participation in campus governance”.)

• A Learning Circle - Learning Circles come out of a rich tradition of citizen activism and democratic education, including the work of educators such as Paulo Freire of Brazil and Myles Horton of the Highlander Folk School. Learning Circles are small, face-to-face gatherings of people who come together build trust and share their ideals, goals, practices and experiences. Learning circles seek to create free and safe spaces where open discussion of hard questions can take place in a collaborative and enriching environment that brings together people from different constituencies. [See www.e4ce.org]

Size
What is the ideal size for a successful dialogue? Much of that depends on the type of dialogue, what organizers hope to accomplish and the level of agreement/disagreement around the topic being discussed. As a general rule, smaller is better and diversity of opinion is a plus. An ideal size for an introductory dialogue might be 10 to 15 participants. This size allows each participant to join in the flow of conversation and lends itself to the building of relations and to respectful listening.

More formal formats that make use of narrow topics, possibly introduced by a panel or expert, might be much larger. It is not uncommon for town hall type meetings to accommodate 100 or more participants.