This booklet, published by registered charity the Dialogue Society in 2013, brings together key insights and recommendations from a series of discussions exploring the role and value of dialogue and considering how its quality might be improved and its reach extended. The discussions brought together dialogue professionals, religious leaders, conflict resolution specialists, academics and other professionals with a wealth of relevant experience, to tackle questions such as the following: Does dialogue really extend beyond the tea-fuelled self-congratulation of a few liberal religious believers? Does it ... (continue)

One of the National Issues Forums Institute’s issue guides, How Can We Be Fair? The Future of Affirmative Action outlines this public issue and several choices or approaches to addressing the issue. National Issues Forums do not advocate a specific solution or point of view, but provide citizens the opportunity to consider a broad range of choices, weigh the pros and cons of those options, and meet with each other in a public dialogue to identify the concerns they hold in common. From the issue ... (continue)

One of the National Issues Forums Institute’s issue guides, Racial and Ethnic Tensions: What Should We Do? outlines this public issue and several choices or approaches to addressing the issue. National Issues Forums do not advocate a specific solution or point of view, but provide citizens the opportunity to consider a broad range of choices, weigh the pros and cons of those options, and meet with each other in a public dialogue to identify the concerns they hold in common. From the issue guide description… ... (continue)

This 1999 report by John Doble and Iara Peng of Doble Research Associates examined the inclusion and effectiveness of NIF material in high school classrooms. See more details on the NIF website. Four high school teachers who extensively use NIF in their classes partnered with Doble Research on this project. The teachers reviewed the research protocol and materials, described at length how they use NIF in their classrooms, recruited students to participate in the focus groups, made all arrangements for each session, acted as participant-observers at the sessions, joined ... (continue)

This is a report about National Issues Forums where citizens deliberated about the issue of what to do about racial and ethnic tensions. The forums involved nearly 2,000 people in 40 states around the country using the NIF issue book, Racial and Ethnic Tensions, prepared in collaboration with the Kettering Foundation. Analysis of what happened in those forums was conducted by Doble Research Associates, a public interest consulting firm, and is presented in this report. Find more details & order info on the NIF website. From ... (continue)

This 2001 report by Anne Wolford provides an overview of a survey of Public Policy Institutes and the effectiveness of their networking efforts.  You can find more details on the NIF website. More about National Issues Forums and their Reports on the Issues… The National Issues Forums (NIF) network includes civic, educational, and other organizations, and individuals, whose common interest is to promote public deliberation in America. NIF issue guides introduce participants to several choices or approaches to consider. Rather than conforming to any single public proposal, each choice reflects widely ... (continue)

This article (co-authored by NCDD member Ximena Zúñiga, Gretchen E. Lopez & Kristie A. Ford) appears in a special issue of the education journal Equity & Excellence in Education – co-edited by higher education faculty, program developers and practitioners – which includes research and practice examples from higher education, school, and community settings and focuses on intergroup dialogue as form of social justice education. All the articles cover program and social science studies from varied institutional and geographic locations, and capture experiences and reflections of facilitators, students, and diverse ... (continue)

This 2004 report by Taylor Willingham provides an overview of the second New Dartmouth Conference, this one held in Russia, which examined U.S.-Russia Relations. See more details on the NIF website. From the report… The overwhelming common theme from both sides was that citizens make a clear distinction between the “human” aspect of the relationship and the political aspects – drawing a line between governments and people. Russians initially saw the relationship as the competence of the government, but shifted to an emphasis on citizen to citizen interactions after deliberating. ... (continue)

Connecting the Deliberative Public To its Elected Representatives is a research report on A Public Voice 2005 by Philip D. Stewart. Find more details on the NIF website. From his conclusion… The real opportunity before us is to take advantage of the learnings from our research to date on what it takes for elected officials and policy influentials to come to the insight that a deliberative public has a useful, even essential contribution to make to policymaking.  I see two major learnings as relevant to embracing this opportunity more ... (continue)

This report by Jeffrey D. Greene provides an overview of the findings revealed in two workshops conducted by the Kettering Foundation that involved professional and civic organizations (more details on the NIF website).  In short, the central question that this report addresses is: What do we know about the use of deliberation in these organizations with respect to the way they interact with the public? From the report’s conclusion… One problem that is evident from the discussion is that the working concept of “civic engagement” or “engaging ... (continue)