Abstract

The implementation of dialogue training has become increasingly popular in higher education settings that have experienced hostile climates or events. At select universities, students are offered opportunities to engage in identity-based learning through an Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) format and can gain skills to lead dialogues in other venues. Some positive outcomes in community settings where dialogic practices are used include stereotype reduction, increased perspective-taking, and increased awareness of structural power. Dialogue evaluation research often fixates so heavily on qualities of the dialogue process that little attention is paid to assessing the process or outcomes. This mixed-methods study seeks to measure the outcomes of a dialogue-based programming to better understand the process of student learning. Survey data and semi-structured interviews are used to examine changes in student outcomes and the meanings students assign to their experiences. The goal of this work is to better understand and measure the outcomes of dialogue participation and contribute to the knowledge available about students engaged in dialogue in higher education institutions. Insights garnered will be shared with the Dialogue across Difference team at UCLA, the School of Education and Information Studies in support of their dialogue-based course sequence, and UCLA’s Student Dialogue Network.

Field

School of Education and Information Studies, Department of Political Science, Luskin School of Public Affairs