Facilitating Controversial Discussions
Facilitating Controversial Discussions is a prompted conversation exercise for psychological safety: it helps participants build trust while keeping the stakes low.
How to run it
- Others provide related initial questions for instructors to consider before engaging in such conversations (DiAngelo and Sensoy, 2014b):
- How can I notice my own defensive reactions and attempt to use these reactions as entry points for gaining deeper self-knowledge?
- How does my own social positionality (such as my race, class, gender, sexuality, ability-status) inform my perspectives and reactions to students?
- The importance of seeking to understand what someone means by a comment or question. Rather than assuming the speaker’s motivations, ask questions that clarify meaning and intent.
- Evaluation of an idea on the available evidence, rather than the person exploring the idea. Avoid making it personal.
- Suggestions about what it sounds like to be civil and respectful in raising and challenging new ideas. How does inquisitive language differ from language that debates or attacks?
Run this exercise live
The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.
What participants need now
Materials:
This is a participant-safe snapshot, not a response form. It sends nothing back to the facilitator.
Prompts to use +
Others provide related initial questions for instructors to consider before engaging in such conversations (DiAngelo and Sensoy, 2014b):
How can I notice my own defensive reactions and attempt to use these reactions as entry points for gaining deeper self-knowledge?
The importance of seeking to understand what someone means by a comment or question. Rather than assuming the speaker’s motivations, ask questions that clarify meaning and intent.
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Facilitating Controversial Discussions. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Others provide related initial questions for instructors to consider before engaging in such conversations (DiAngelo and Sensoy, 2014b):; How can I notice my own defensive reactions and attempt to use these reactions as entry points for gaining deeper self-knowledge?; The importance of seeking to understand what someone means by a comment or question. Rather than assuming the speaker’s motivations, ask questions that clarify meaning and intent.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from sheridan.brown.edu; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including sheridan.brown.edu.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.