This is a cross-disciplinary project which draws on the perspectives of a systemic family therapist/psychologist and an early educationalist specialising in refugee and migrant children.
It grew from a series of conversations and experiences of polarisation in professional conference settings which led to the question: How can we have difficult conversations in an increasingly polarised world?
We are developing a ‘how to’ guide for facilitation of difficult conversations as we believe, as professionals, we must be able to discuss ‘difficult’ subjects, to prevent polarisation impacting our professional practice. The term ‘difficult’ is used to describe subjects that seem to have become increasingly divisive in our society.
We aim to host a series of professional conversations about difficult topics, to trial and refine our model. The hope is that this Conversational Model will be useful to provide space for professionals to be able to listen to each other, grapple with holding different opinions within a place of respect and so promote deeper understanding of complex issues. We suggest that this will benefit our respective professional communities to enable them to both challenge and counteract increasing polarisation in our society.
We are looking to trial this conversational model with professionals separately for the education and therapy professions. This will involve a 2 hour meeting either in person or on line depending on demand and the researchers using the conversational with participants and writing field notes and observations on the model and its effectiveness.
This is an independent research project by Keith Oulton and Dr Donna Gaywood with ethical oversight provided by Centre for Research In Early Childhood (CREC).
If you are interested in participating in this research project or what to find out more Contact: Donna Gaywood donnagaywood@proton.me or Keith Oulton Keith.oulton@protonmail.com.
Please see here for more information.