Faculty Development Program

Faculty Development Activities

Faculty development activities begin with 4 half-day workshops in the fall.
Half-day workshops will include training in deliberative dialogue, conflict resolution, religious literacy. Interactive theatre techniques will provide opportunities for practice and rehearsal for dealing with difficult dialogues.
Faculty Fellows will apply their learning in their regular undergraduate courses taught in the winter/spring.
Additional faculty development support will be provided through 2 additional workshops in the winter.
Faculty Fellows receive a $500 stipend for their participation MU Difficult Dialogues.

Have you experienced difficult dialogues in your classroom? Do you want to be better prepared to facilitate controversial topics in an effective way? If you want to work on these skills and improve your teaching effectiveness, become a Difficult Dialogues Faculty Fellow!

In our lively interactive workshops, you will:

Learn classroom techniques in conflict resolution and deliberation
Practice the learned techniques, Respond to classroom scenarios, and Encourage cross-cultural empathy through interactive theatre
Gain religious literacy on religious underpinnings of prevalent views on controversial issues

Each Fellow will then develop a teaching module incorporating the religious/cultural underpinnings of any number of contemporary issues relevant to his/her discipline that might spark tension or controversy in the classroom.

Fellows will be asked to engage students in rigorous course assignments designed to address religious pluralism, academic freedom and difficult dialogues.

“I loved this program and found it really useful because it creates a forum for discussing and trying out methods for promoting constructive conversations about sensitive subjects in the classroom.”
Katherine Reed – Fall, 2006 Faculty Fellow

"I'm very glad I did it because it was well worth it."
Elizabeth Hornbeck - Fall, 2006 Faculty Fellow

“I thought it was a very worthwhile use of my time!”
Michael Porter – Fall, 2006 Faculty Fellow

"There were a couple of times that I would have liked to have continued the workshop discussion over lunch."
Elizabeth Wilson – Fall, 2006 Faculty Fellow

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