Navigating Inclusion and Freedom of Speech in the Classroom – Mar 1

Posted by University of Pennsylvania on February 22, 2022

How can we both promote open discourse and protect students from harm? Join us for a community dialogue event that brings together educators + students from a variety of Philadelphia campuses – from high school to higher ed – to share insights and experiences from each participant’s unique context and perspective. Conversants and audience members alike will respond to Dr. Sigal Ben-Porath’s “inclusive freedom” framework for campus speech, which places equal importance on the right of all voices to be included and the right of all ideas to be expressed.

This non-traditional, participatory event will model a number of structures that support equitable inclusion in dialogue, so that all participants truly feel free to speak. This won’t be a debate, a panel discussion, or a series of speaker presentations. Instead, in the first half of this community dialogue, our invited conversants will engage in a facilitated conversation with one another, modeling non-hierarchical, equitable dialogue across difference. In the second half, audience members will respond to this conversation and engage with a set of discussion questions in small-group dialogues. Attendees will come away with new strategies for participating in and facilitating inclusive, open dialogue, as well as new appreciation of the unique complexities of practicing intellectual freedom in different local educational contexts.

Date and Time: March 1, 2022, 4:30-6:00 PM

Location: University of Pennsylvania, Houston Hall, Ben Franklin Room 218, 3417 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Learn more and register.