Our Mandate is to Prepare Participants to. . .
ENGAGE Diverse Perspectives. In order to cultivate empathy for and understanding of diverse perspectives in the world around us, we must be equipped to engage in conversations that explore the lived experiences, stories, ideas, concerns and values of others unlike ourselves.
“Our contemporary public sphere is in crisis. We have deep concerns about our society, and yet we feel unheard and unrecognized. We want to understand the concerns of others, and yet we are anxious about interacting with those we disagree. Our civic life has thus become fragmented and incapable of fostering deep engagement on the issues that most animate and trouble us.” (Deliberative Citizenship Initiative, Davidson College: https://deliberativecitizenship.org/)
COLLABORATE Effectively in Workplaces. To be truly career-ready and prepared to make decisions, solve problems, and lead organizations, our students need to be able to consider relevant facts and values from multiple viewpoints; manage conflict; and collaborate with others through decision-making processes.
“Employers in all sectors are clamoring for higher education to teach students such important civic skills as active listening, deliberation, engaging diverse perspectives, collaboration, creative problem solving, civility, ethical decision making, and informational literacy” (Jacoby, 2009, p. x).
DELIBERATE Constructively in Communities. In many contexts in community decision-making, our students and their communities must listen and react to one another with empathy and curiosity; work through underlying tensions and tough choices inherent in highly complex value-laden social problems; and arrive at nuanced public judgments through deliberative processes.
“. . [D]ue to the inherently “wicked” nature of problems in our diverse democracies, our communities must develop and sustain their capacity for inquiry and collaborative problem solving through the perspectives fostered by deliberative democracy. As a result, civic engagement programs in particular should be tapping into those resources and activities in order to prepare students as well as to help build local civic capacity” (Carcasson, 2013, p. 37)
Vision
Our Center for Dialogue & Deliberation responds to UTSA’s vision of preparing citizen leaders for the global environment; to enable our students’ career readiness as effective communicators; and contribute to building communicative capacity in the larger San Antonio area.
Our goals are to:
TRAIN Roadrunners in listening, dialogue, facilitation, conflict management, collaboration and deliberation
CREDENTIAL Roadrunners through experiential learning (e.g., coursework, badges, certificates, workshops) in dialogue facilitation, listening, collaboration, deliberation, and conflict management
BUILD CAPACITY in community dialogue & deliberation at UTSA and in San Antonio and surrounding neighborhoods
EXAMINE AND SHARE what is being learned in the pedagogical and capacity-building programs we create with scholars, practitioners, and others who are interested in explaining and enhancing dialogue and deliberative practices
