ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on Intergroup dialogue, a form of democratic engagement that fosters critical understanding, communication, and collaborative action across race and other social group boundaries about contentious issues in educational and community settings. It examines the conceptual foundations of intergroup dialogue and situates intergroup dialogue as a social education between justice and pedagogy. Social justice education may be described as an interdisciplinary approach for examining social justice issues and addressing them through education. As a form of social justice education, intergroup dialogue seeks to engage difference, social identity, and social justice through an intentional process that attempts to enhance equity across two or more social identity groups with distinct subject positions and statuses in asymmetrical power relations. One of the most commonly used and most researched intergroup practice approaches, particularly in higher education, is the critical dialogic practice approach known as Intergroup Dialogue.
