As many of you may know, our friends at the National Issues Forums Institute have been engaged in an ongoing national dialogue series based on one of their latest issue guides titled “Shaping Our Future: How Should Higher Education Help Us Create the Society We Want?”  The guide has been helping facilitate conversations across the country about how our nation’s colleges and university systems should be changing and what role they should play in our society’s future.  The series has continued to move forward, and we wanted to ... (continue)

This extraordinary post was submitted by NCDD supporting member Janice Thomson. Janice has been working in collaboration with UIC’s Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement to map the D&D terrain in Chicago, an effort which has led to the development of a new Community of Practice for dialogue and deliberation practitioners in the city. NCDD supports the effort and we hope to see other members launching similar efforts!  - Sandy From Janice… I honestly didn’t realize just how ambitious trying to understand the use of dialogue ... (continue)

Nomination materials for the 2013 Saltmarsh Award are due Monday, April 8, 2013. The award is given in recognition of exemplary early-career leaders who are advancing the wider civic engagement movement through higher education to build a broader public culture of democracy. (continue)

NCDD is proud to join our friends at Kansas State University in announcing that KSU is the new home for the much-touted certificate program in Dialogue, Deliberation, and Public Engagement (DDPE). As we announced at the 2012 NCDD conference in Seattle, NCDD is the “Core Collaborator” for the DDPE program. Our supporting members receive a 10% discount on tuition, and NCDD resources will be featured in the curriculum. The Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at KSU is offering the award winning graduate level DDPE Collaborative ... (continue)

We received the following announcement today from the National Issues Forums Institute‘s Patty Dineen for a fantastic webinar being held this Friday.  Since this is a little last minute, I’m just going to share the whole announcement… SHAPING OUR FUTURE:  WHAT IS HIGHER EDUCATION’S ROLE? Join Us For A Moderator Preparation Webinar on Friday, October 26, 2012 at 2pm This coming year, more than 60 campuses and communities will host shaping our future forums. Here’s your chance to find out how to participate. This free webinar ... (continue)

Focusing on “Educating for Democracy” The Kettering Foundation’s Connections series is an annual publication which focuses on a central issue or particular area of Kettering research.  This year, Connections 2012: Educating for Democracy, explores the issues and innovations within higher education and is being released alongside the recently announced National Issues Forums  ”Shaping Our Future: How Should Higher Education Help Us Create the Society We Want?” national dialogue initiative and issue guide. Also Available: “That’s Not Democracy” from CIRCLE Another report, this one from the Center for Information ... (continue)

What kind of leadership is important in creating inclusive and engaged organizations and communities? What are the skills, knowledge, and mindset needed to make this happen? How can we work together toward this vision? What does this look like in a higher education setting? The University of Wisconsin-Extension is launching an innovative certificate program on Inclusive and Engaged Leadership that explores these questions through the lens of deep and systemic change. The certificate program is a proud Co-Sponsor of the 2012 NCDD conference in Seattle. ... (continue)

As we shared earlier this month, the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI), in association with the American Commonwealth Partnership, launched their latest year-long national dialogue initiative, Shaping Our Future: How Should Higher Education Help Us Create the Society We Want?, with an event at the National Press Club in DC on September 4th. The video of the event is now available online… Introduced by Harry Boyte, the National Coordinator of the American Commonwealth Partnership, the event featured Martha Kanter, the U.S. Undersecretary of Education;  Nancy Cantor, Chancellor, ... (continue)

Our friend Harry Boyte, National Coordinator of the American Commonwealth Partnership, wanted NCDDers to be aware of the Shaping Our Future launch event taking place on September 4th in DC. Below is the media advisory that went out this week on the event, which launches a yearlong, nationwide series of citizen dialogues on how higher education could do more, or operate differently, to strengthen America’s economy, culture, and civic participation. The project is being launched by a coalition of nonprofit and educational leaders on Tuesday, ... (continue)

Peter Levine is in the middle of co-teaching his Summer Institute of Civic Studies and using his blog to share his notes for roughly half of the 18 topics they cover in their extraordinary class. Yesterday morning’s discussion focused on Jürgen Habermas — a communication theorist referenced often by scholars in our field.  Here’s just a taste of what you’ll find on Peter’s popular blog this week… The readings for that module were: Jürgen Habermas, “The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article,” New German Critique, 3 (1974), pp. 49-55 ... (continue)