Rooted in years of research, practice, and community engagement at UMBC, the Dialogic Competencies for Community Building were developed by Drs. Ciara R. Christian and Jasmine A. Lee, founding co-directors of the UMBC Center for Social Justice. These competencies—Critical Self-Reflection, Cultural Storytelling, Generous Listening, and Loving Accountability—offer a framework for engaging across difference with curiosity, vulnerability, and care. They are designed to support individuals and communities in cultivating deeper understanding, fostering empathy, and building sustainable relationships grounded in equity and justice. Featured in the forthcoming NASPA publication Beyond Disruption: Building Creative and Innovative Campuses, these competencies reflect our commitment to dialogue as a transformative practice for social change and inform our practices of intergroup dialogue in every day practices.
Critical self-reflection – wondering about self
Critical self-reflection invites individuals to consider themselves as part of the problem so they begin to imagine themselves as part of the solution. Practicing critical self-reflection helps individuals consider how past experiences shape their beliefs, values, perceptions, and biases. Further, critical self-reflection helps individuals recognize and understand that they are conditioned to perform roles, rules, and norms that reinforce hierarchies according to their various social identities and societal positionality. The goal of critical self-reflection is consciousness-raising, which like wonder, is born from love. Through critical self-reflection, individuals begin the lifelong process of unpacking the impact of their upbringing and socialization on their biases, behaviors, values, and, ultimately, their interactions with others.
Cultural storytelling – telling your story and practicing vulnerability
In particular, we encourage a cultural storytelling practice that uses data collected through critical self-reflection to share their understanding of their positionality, values, experiences, and entry points to systems of power and oppression. Our stories are in direct connection to our identities and shape our experiences, perceptions, and biases. cultural storytelling takes risks to share deeply held values, beliefs, and lived experiences with others in ways that amplify the cultural connections throughout one’s life.
Generous Listening – wondering about others and practicing empathy
Krista Tippet describes generous listening as a practice of vulnerability that is “powered by curiosity,” in which the listener is not merely making space for the speaker but listening to understand their humanity (2016, p29). One of the most unique features of Tippett’s model is the inclusion of asking generous questions. Generous questions are those which “invite honesty, dignity, and revelation” (2016, p30), and are crafted with the goal of summoning storytelling in order to gain a deeper, richer understanding of others and the experiences that inform their perspectives. As a competency for dialogic community building, when we adopt an orientation of wonder (Kaur, 2020), generous listening allows us to engage with others in ways that humanize them enough to be considered a part of our circle.
Loving Accountability – engaging self-accountability, shared responsibility and shared learning
Duncan and Smith (2022) describe loving accountability as fostering personal and collective growth through supportive and honest interactions. Without such collective accountability, we cannot work together to create a meaningful, equitable, and just society (Duncan & Smith, 2022). As an accountability approach it is about recognizing and acknowledging individual and group harm and engaging in resulting accountable outcomes (i.e., apologizing, policy change, supportive measures) (Duncan & Smith, 2022). As a part of loving accountability skill-building, we focus on perspective-taking, cultivating shared responsibility, bridge-building, finding one’s role in social change, and self-accountability.