Foundations of Academic Dialogue is a research-based set of best practices for managing difficult dialogues in an academic classroom. It is field agnostic, customizable, and helps faculty recenter academics. Immediately below is a downloadable copy of the guide for all faculty and instructors to utilize, copy, paste, and share. Following the resource is rationale, background, and a video on implementation as further support faculty.
The Challenge
Classroom discussions can quickly spiral into heated ideological battles, with students and faculty locked in moral corners. While these debates often stem from academic content, they’re fueled by passionate convictions.
This isn’t a flaw—it’s by design.
Many students arrive from K-12 systems emphasizing Social and Emotional Learning, where bringing your whole self—emotions, identity, values—to academic discussions is encouraged. They’ve learned to approach academic topics through lenses of equity and identity.
The gap? Awareness without skills.
Students feel strongly but may lack tools to engage respectfully when they disagree, or to listen with genuine curiosity to opposing views. Meanwhile, many faculty weren’t trained to teach in this model. They may expect to cover material efficiently, positioning themselves as subject experts guiding student learning.
The collision.
Students often expect instructors to skillfully moderate classroom dialogues and validate their perspectives. Faculty expect to teach content without navigating complex identity-based discussions. Multiply these mismatched expectations by an entire classroom.
These situations often have two distinct outcomes: Conflict or Silence. Conflictual engagements are heated, fast-paced, and catch us off guard. Silence is a deafening indicator of the lack of confidence people have that they can share what’s on their mind without being judged, cancelled, or drawn into conflict.
The solution isn’t determining who’s “right.”
Instead, we must intentionally co-create shared expectations from day one—not once, but continuously throughout the semester.
The opportunity lies in bridging these worlds: honoring students’ authentic engagement while building the skills needed for productive academic discourse.
Foundations of Academic Dialogue: Implementation
The PowerPoint guidance provided is free to download, and contains text (in blue) that instructors can copy and paste, and tailor to their own voice to help them establish a foundation for effective academic dialogue, and then most importantly, manage conversations in the moment. The video presentation is relevant for any instructor (faculty, postdoc, grad student) to utilize in their approach to teaching.
A video presentation on Foundations of Academic Dialogue
and its implementation
If you have any questions about implementation or for a tailored consultation for you and your classes, please contact Quade French, Ph.D. (qfrench (at) usc.edu).
Thank you for your continued commitment to academic freedom and free expression.