ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the cultivation of conviction in groups through the designing of spaces for reflecting on one’s own values, beliefs, and narratives, as well as a connection to others. Based on two years of research about how students develop and share convictions in the classroom and in co-curricular spaces, in this article, I argue that teachers and leaders can, through intentional design, create spaces for the development of conviction. I propose that people can be invited through an intentional process of inquiry to reflect on the values, stories, and lessons as a way to develop newly formed, articulated, and more deeply understood convictions. And that in the process of structured exchange with people of different convictions, individuals can come to a deeper, more nuanced, understanding of their own.
The chapter examines stories from the field to share ways in which thinking in groups in dialogic spaces has supported the development of convictions in college students on issues such as Israel/Palestine, Guns in American Society, and Abortion. The practice of Reflective Structured Dialogue that supports restructuring exchanges to invite greater intellectual humility in some students makes developing and sharing convictions more welcomed and possible in others.
