Overview
A group of students will live together in Myers Hall and take a year-long course (2 credits per term) exploring methods of dialogue and the question: what makes for good discourse?
Course Description
IDSC 128 Civil Discourse on a Diverse Campus: An Experiential Living-Learning Community
Why is it so hard to get along? This residential course will meet once a week for the students’ first three terms at Carleton to connect the classroom to the dorm room by creating a cohort dedicated in engaging in difficult conversations that can help reduce the impact of conflict within individuals and our community at large. We will work with a basic theoretical framework and readings to help identify universal local and global issues that will be explored in open-ended class discussions and through exchanges with guest speakers. Assignments will include a journal and on campus outreach assignments.
What has been done?
- Completed one year
- Twenty students per year
- The course program was evaluated by external reviewers in the fall of 2017
- The course completed its two-year grant cycle
- The course program was transformed into a 6-credit course, Argument & Inquiry: Civil Discourse in the Troubled Aged, in the fall of 2019
- The course is co-taught by a faculty member and an Associate Dean of Students during fall term
What’s next?
- The course continues to be evaluated yearly
- Plan to include dialogue facilitation skills and practice in the class