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This paper addresses the urgent need for developing pedagogical practices that cultivate relationality, openness, and conscientização amidst what Henry Giroux (via hooks and Freire) has named as the current rise of political authoritarianism, anti-intellectualism, fascism, white supremacy, and the assault on critical education and pedagogy. Through the lens of "Deepening Belonging," a co-created contemplative practice by two educators of color, we explore how nurturing of belonging and relational flourishing can serve as foundational to democratic education. Rooted in the Latin American tradition of Convivencia, this practice embodies values such as mutual respect, adaptability, open-mindedness, and collaborative learning, offering a counter-narrative to the individualized, outcome-oriented, competitive, and consumerist paradigms often prevalent in educational settings. By fostering spaces for compassionate listening, deep witnessing, and embodied ritual-making, "Deepening Belonging" not only challenges oppressive structures through spiritual awareness but also nurtures the capacities necessary for creative democratic engagement and civic participation.
What happens in the world happens in our classrooms: post-truth claims, polarizing discourses, silencing, legislation designed to limit or prohibit the teaching and learning of specific ideas, students who are still learning to navigate social and scholarly realities after years of Covid isolation. These challenges are not just academic. What happens in our classrooms will happen in the world, and though higher education has long been conceived as a space where students learn the skills vital to a thriving democracy, current conditions make the creation of such spaces feel tenuous or even impossible. This paper presents Dialogic Classrooms as one approach that equips our students to engage authentically and civically across differences such that they are able to cultivate the skills and habits necessary for robust and active citizenship, even under pressures that work against such vital engagement.
Contemporary society is deeply divided along cultural, regional, religious, racial, and socioeconomic lines. What is more, these forms of division are intertwined with growing levels of political sorting and polarization. If not checked, extreme polarization and sorting can be highly destructive to democratic culture and structures. My presentation utilizes material, assignments, and processes from a course as well as a student organization that teach students strategies for navigating the polarized environment.