How colleges and universities are teaching students “to disagree better”
How colleges and universities are teaching students “to disagree better”
Following a divisive election and ongoing political strife, it may be hard to see the plus side of talking politics at all. But some colleges are teaching students the art of having productive political conversations with people they disagree with.
Minnesota Public Radio correspondent Catharine Richert spoke with Marketplace’s David Brancaccio about the school administrators behind the movement and how it prepares students for entering the workforce.
David Brancaccio: I suspect I know why, but let me hear from you: Why are universities interested in making it so that people who disagree don’t want to throttle each other?
Catharine Richert: Well, we’ve all heard about cancel culture, and it’s become especially prevalent on college campuses in recent years. The experts I spoke with say that students are afraid to express unpopular opinions in class, and then on top of that, professors worry about getting censored or losing their jobs over certain curriculum. So I spoke with Mylien Duong. She’s the vice president of research at the Constructive Dialogue Institute, which provides colleges with curricula that help address these dynamics. She says their offerings are actually becoming more and more popular.
Mylien Duong: Last year, we had 30 campus partners. This year, we are at 90, and we are not the only ones working in this space.
Richert: And according to Duong, demand for their curriculum has really taken off since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza, which became a flashpoint on university campuses.
Brancaccio: OK, so how are campuses going about this? Is it a discrete class, or is it woven into the curriculum a bit?
Richert: Well, it’s a little bit of both, and it kind of depends on the school. But here’s one example: At the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, they’re starting these lessons during orientation, and they’re using things like improv and trust-building exercises to keep things engaging. And then throughout the year, they’re continuing to deploy some of those early lessons in special workshops and in gatherings.
Brancaccio: Seems like this would also be useful once you get into the real workforce. I mean, I’ve done reporting on what a mess it is for many companies with employees who disagree with one another unable to work with each other.
Richert: Right, and that’s at the crux of why many schools are teaching students to disagree better. I spoke with Rachel Leatham. She’s the Humphrey School’s director of career and student success. Most of her students are heading into careers in politics or public policy.
Rachel Leatham: I’m also being contacted by employers all the time who are asking for students to play a role in nonpartisan agencies, and I need to be able to make sure that our students are equipped and able to enter those spaces in a way that allows them to do fact-based analysis, fact-based policy recommendations.
Richert: She says that being able to survive and even leverage contentious political conversations in the workplace is appealing to employers.
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