“We’re all Squares on a Screen”: Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Opportunities and Limitations of Online Intergroup Dialogue

Grant Jackson; Sarah Schiffecker; Oleksandra Poquet

doi:10.24059/olj.v29i2.4444

Authors

Grant R. Jackson Texas Tech University (Department of Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Counseling) https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4186-4860
Sarah M. Schiffecker Texas Tech University (College of Media and Communication) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9444-6120
Oleksandra Poquet 3Technical University of Munich (Department of Educational Sciences)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v29i2.4444

Keywords:

intergroup dialogue, online learning, digital learning, belonging, college teaching

Abstract

Postsecondary institutions are seeing the need and searching for ways to prepare their students for life in an increasingly complex and often polarized society. Since its development in the late 1980s, intergroup dialogue (IGD) has become a prominent dialogic pedagogy that brings together small, diverse groups of college students to dialogue on topics related to diversity, equity, equality, and belonging. Though IGD has traditionally been an in-person experience, postsecondary institutions were required to offer IGD online during the COVID-19 pandemic, making it important to discern what opportunities and limitations may come with such online delivery. Guided by theories of intergroup contact and intergroup dialogue, we interviewed 16 college students who had participated in IGD via Zoom regarding their online IGD experience, illuminating a variety of opportunities and limitations that are interpersonal and intrapersonal in nature. Emergent themes, along with their implications for IGD theory, practice, and future research, are discussed.

Author Biographies

Grant R. Jackson, Texas Tech University (Department of Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Counseling)

Grant Jackson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Counseling at Texas Tech University. Motivated by the role higher education can play in developing students holistically and preparing them for life in an increasingly diverse and complex society, Dr. Jackson studies ways in which students' developmental capacity and identities influence their engagement with and experience of college curricula, pedagogies, and related institutional endeavors. His research focuses on how students at varying levels of development and of diverse identities interpret, experience, and are impacted by intergroup dialogue, a pedagogy that brings together students from diverse identity groups to engage in difficult conversations related to belonging and related issues. Prior to becoming a faculty member, Dr. Jackson worked in other higher education capacities as an intergroup dialogue facilitator, instructional consultant, and academic advisor.

Sarah M. Schiffecker, Texas Tech University (College of Media and Communication)

Sarah Maria Schiffecker, Ph.D. (Higher Education), is a Lecturer in International Affairs at the College of Media and Communications at Texas Tech University. Her academic background is in Cultural and Social Anthropology, Slavic Studies (University of Vienna, Austria) as well as Foreign Languages and Literatures (Texas Tech University). Her research interests lie in international higher education, intercultural communication and competence, as well as educational leadership.

Oleksandra Poquet, 3Technical University of Munich (Department of Educational Sciences)

Oleksandra Poquet is Assistant Professor at the Department of Educational Sciences, School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University Munich. Dr Poquet leads a research lab that investigates Learning Analytics and Practices in Systems (LEAPSLab). The lab focuses on social learning and relationship formation in technology-augmented environments, applies complex systems approaches in the analysis of learning, and examines the use of data and educational technology across diverse learning contexts. Dr Poquet is also an external affiliate of the Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning, University of South Australia.

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“We’re all Squares on a Screen”: Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Opportunities and Limitations of Online Intergroup Dialogue

Authors

DOI:

Keywords:

Abstract

Author Biographies

Grant R. Jackson, Texas Tech University (Department of Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Counseling)

Sarah M. Schiffecker, Texas Tech University (College of Media and Communication)

Oleksandra Poquet, 3Technical University of Munich (Department of Educational Sciences)

References

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