Dialogical Teaching: Promoting Intellectual and Emotional Learning

The teacher’s podium is commonly thought of as a place of monologue, where teachers tell students what to know. Certain social issues, however, are best examined through dialogical teaching that promotes learning and a deep sense of knowing by the student. Consistent with the teachings of Paulo Freire, dialogical learning allows students to match their understanding of the world with an empirical foundation. The teacher thus facilitates a learning experience that can blend feeling and knowing. A class entitled, “Torture Survivor Well-being” was developed as part of a clinical psychology trauma concentration and offered at the Adler School of Professional Psychology in Chicago, Illinois USA. Clinical and community psychology perspectives were integrated to present an ecological model of understanding the impact of torture as a political tool. The first semester of this two semester class defined torture and presented multimedia material that exposed students to the use and effects of torture. The second semester involved a partnership with a torture treatment program and included three components: a group learning circle among students and torture survivors; group supervision with the class instructors; and a student-survivor partnership that involved activities outside the learning circle. The dialogical approach of the class engaged students personally and professionally to: examine their own beliefs about the use of torture; examine the global use, effects, and effectiveness of torture; learn empowerment approaches to client community education that promote a psychological sense of community. Students thus prepared themselves for constructive interaction with survivors who have sought political asylum in the United States. This presentation will share the syllabi for both semesters and describe the teaching process and student discourse as they intellectually were encouraged to examine the use of torture and experientially engage with survivors who have sought political asylum in the United States. Final papers written by the students provided a forum for personal accounts of the course’s impact on their beliefs. The presenters suggest that this teaching methodology could benefit educators in communities coming to terms with racial, ethnic, economic and other points of conflict and promote knowledge that is not only known, but felt