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Dialogue Across Differences: Communicating with Compassion and Clarity

Pluralism is a process and not a product. It is a mentality, a way of looking at a diverse and changing world. A pluralistic environment is a kaleidoscope that history shakes every day.

Aga Khan lV, Toronto Royal Conservatory Centre for Performance and Learning, Lecture Series, 2010

 This next section of this book has introductory activities that explore the art of communication.   Building healthy pluralistic societies depends on citizens developing their capacity to engage in respectful dialogues where they are genuinely interested in learning about  different perspectives and approaches to life:

Pluralism is not just tolerance, but the active seeking of understanding across lines of difference.   . . . It means holding our deepest differences, even our religious differences, not in isolation, but in relationship to one another

The language of pluralism is that of dialogue and encounter, give and take, criticism and self-criticism. Dialogue means both speaking and listening, and that process reveals both common understandings and real differences.

                                                   – The Harvard Pluralism Project

Respectful dialogues are the foundation of pluralism, but our education systems rarely teach people how to listen and interact in ways that build deeper understanding.  The activities in this section offer participants opportunities to explore and practice ways to communicate across differences.

Dialogue is a method of communication that involves two-way conversations where people not only speak to each other, but also really listen with the goal of leaving the conversation with a better understanding of the topic and the different perspectives that make up a community. In dialogue, participants must suspend their judgements and assumptions (Yankelovich, 1999) and do not presuppose to know the whole truth but remain open to the possibilities inherent in
others’ views (Gadamer, 1960/2013)

UVic Research Health Education is Education iminds

 

My son Faelan at the Afghan Bazaar, Tajikistan. Communication at its finest.

 

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This work (Pathways to Connection: by Robin Higgins) is free of known copyright restrictions.