AUTHOR: Kris Morrissey, Museology Faculty.
‘Cacophony.’ An onomatopoeia for these times. Trying to pronounce it does sounds like what it defines- “a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds”, sort of like an attempt to dislodge something caught in my throat. Maybe that’s why the word keeps popping into my mind when I read newspaper headlines such as “up is down” or “calamity” or see the vitriolic signs amongst the peaceful ones in the marches. What does all that noise mean?
Amidst the cacophony that was the month of January, a group of graduate students and I had the opportunity to develop our skills in dialogue through a weekend workshop with Sarah Pharaon, from the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. The weekend was part of a class about dialogue-based programs, developed as part of the project, Let’s Talk: A Meta-Conversation about Dialogue. Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, the project included a national symposium with professionals who are engaged in planning, facilitating, evaluating or studying dialogue based programs in museums. Using what we learned at the symposium and a broad review of current dialogue-based programs, we developed a class in dialogue. The course was driven by an assumption that museums have an opportunity and the responsibility to not only help us all make sense of the world, but to help us all make sense of what we want the world to be.
Can we change the conversations around us? Can we, as museum professionals, facilitate conversations that examine, redefine and embolden our role as stewards, as storytellers, as seekers of truths? Pretty heady stuff. But packed amidst the big ideas and fabulous aspirations of the weekend were some pithy techniques and strategies that can be applied to any conversation, staff meeting or group project. One of Sarah’s favorites, which I think belongs on a button, is W.A.I.T., an acronym for ‘why am I talking”. . . . hmmmm. . . so I’ll stop talking here and let a couple of students share their thoughts about dialogue.
“The possibilities offered by dialogue seem endless and since our workshop, I’ve often found myself returning to the concepts presented. There was one strategy which I found particularly impactful: ORACLE – the Only Right Answers Come from Lived Experience. This technique challenges dialogue facilitators and participants to acknowledge and respect the value of personal experience. This is especially important in environments (such as museums, group projects, meetings, etc.) where those with the most “knowledge” can quickly dominate the conversation, and essentially, hold all the power. By giving lived experience equal weight to subject knowledge, we can broaden the conversation, explore new ways of thinking, and dismantle some of the power structures that develop in group situations.
I’ve been using ORACLE more and more in my own life, particularly in class discussions and group meetings, reminding myself that lived experience contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the issue. ORACLE and the many other strategies offered by dialogic practice can help us to become more empathetic individuals, better-informed citizens, and more responsible professionals.
If there is a downside to dialogue, I can’t find it. I’m excited to continue incorporating these techniques in my own personal and professional life!”
-Terri Ball, Graduate Student in Library and Information Science and Museology”
“Dialogue is a powerful tool, something with I think still mysterious possibilities in its ability to generate collaborative solutions. Rather than just a sharing of experiences, the way we’ve learned about dialogue is as the creation of a singular, shared experience of human difference, a deliberate space in which people can have realizations and be realized as valid and worthwhile.
With that being said, I came into dialogue for its potential as a tool in social justice, and beyond dreams of possibilities, I don’t know if I believe in the ability of dialogue to change hearts and minds. In the end, the war between dialogue and antagonism is between cooperation and exploitation, where the exploitative must voluntarily relinquish their privileges in order to enter into a contract of cooperation.
Someone who has truly entered a dialogue has already made the most important change, which is the decision to listen in good faith. For dialogue to have the reach and the power that I think it has the potential for, museums which engage in it will have to make an important dialogic decision of their own: is it better to try to woo those who refuse to listen, who will listen with no intention of changing, who will silence the oppressed in dialogic spaces to recreate monologic norms; or is it better to drop the illusion of neutrality in order to mobilize dialogue as a tool for creating cooperation against bigotry and exploitation.
In the dark times we are headed into, dialogue (and museums at large) can be a reflection of our darkness or a tool of resistance, but can’t be both. I know which of those two I will choose in my career.”
-Grayson Dirk, Museology graduate student
“Dialogue can be a vehicle for justice, working actively to correct the problems we are a part of, and its power is in the forms it can take; be it formal or informal, this intentional form can be applied to big stakes or small stakes, young and old, those in agreement or those at odds. With the complexity of the human experience, intentional discussion and reflection for collective learning– dialogue— can “bring breath into the space,” as Sarah Pharon articulates, as well as re-examine the norms, stories, and histories at play around us, within us.
For me, dialogue provides a framework for us to connect where we might least expect to, and through collective questioning, criticism and creativity, better understand how we are the way we are, again and again– what a gift!”
-Lucy Kruesel, Education Graduate Student
Resources
- Coalition of Dialogue & Deliberation– Particularly the “Must See Resources” and “Handy Dandy Glossary”.
- Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter – Particularly “What is it” and “How does it work”
- The Circle Way – most similar to the training we went through.
- Science Cafes
- Facilitation at a Glance, 4th Edition by Ingrid Bens