The Truman School offered a new course this semester as part of a broader initiative to foster constructive dialogue among students with different political views. The course, Democracy, Pluralism, and Civil Discourse, focuses on the foundations of pluralism in the United States’ political system and provides students with a structured environment to practice civil discourse with their peers. In addition to offering foundational perspectives for the value of open dialogue and viewpoint diversity, students tackle some of the most controversial issues in U.S. politics in an effort to better understand each other.
“As most are aware, we’re living in an age of intense political polarization,” said Dr. Brian Kisida, Associate Professor and course professor. “The conventional wisdom surrounding these issues on college campuses is that students self-censor for fear of being misunderstood or alienated by their classmates, which perpetuates a cycle of echo-chamber thinking.”
A team of Truman School faculty participated in a Volker Alliance initiative with the Constructive Dialogue Institute to identify strategies to strengthen civil discourse on college campuses. Fourteen different schools of public affairs have joined the initiative and have been meeting regularly for the past year to design programming.
“The results I’m seeing in the classroom have been incredibly encouraging. I’m witnessing students finding common ground and even forming new friendships that cross partisan divides,” said Kisida. “Such skills are essential for students planning careers in public service, or any workplace where they will need to navigate conflict and build relationships with people from both sides of the political spectrum.”