Looking to near peers to guide student discussions about race

Abstract

The authors describe a promising approach to engaging high school students in intergroup dialogues, relying on “near peers” — in this case, local college students — to facilitate a series of classroom discussions about racial identity, differences, and opportunities to connect. Early results suggest that the approach had significant benefits for all participants. The high school students deepened their ability to think critically about racial issues and listen actively to others’ opinions, and the college students reported increased compassion, efficacy, and confidence as change agents. Further, even though their role was just to observe the dialogues, the cooperating teachers reported that they learned new facilitation skills and became more willing to address racial issues in the classroom.