Page 48 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

Yankelovich commented that working through is typically not about the introduction of new

information, because “people engaged in working through may have all the information they need

long before they are willing to confront the cross pressures that ensnare them” (p. 65).

While Yankelovich (2001) described the shift that occurs in civic and deliberative dialogue

processes as a process in which conversations move from politeness to difficult and hard issues as

“working through” (p. 64), Saunders (2001) detailed an approach for challenging and changing

conflictual relationships through sustained engagement. Saunders identified six elements

(“identity, interests and interdependence, continuing interaction, effective power, limits on

behavior, and evolving perceptions”) (pp. 36-41) of relationship that contribute to change and

promote working through when combined with a sustained process of civic and deliberative

dialogue. Another perspective about the concept of working through comes from the literature on

group development which works through its stages as long as the group commits to stay together.

I taught college level courses in Group Theory enrolling my students into conducting off

campus dialogue research and we experimented in class practicing Community Conversation

facilitation concepts working through disagreements and differences of opinion. This experience

will be included and further reported on in my supplemental notes along with covering important

related literature studying group development (Tuckman, 1965; Tuckman & Jensen, 1977;

Wheelan, 1994) In my studies, I found it useful to research understanding the ability of groups to

interrelate and what it takes to grow their comfort level as the relationships evolved and discussions

progressed. Wheelan (1994) and Tuckman and Jensen (1997) documented the ability of personal

and social group interactions to change and transform over time and I found this to be true with

my students and their interactions with their fellow classmates reflected in the larger view in how

I saw the facilitation of their off-campus group interactions which they reported on. I found these

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