Melissa Brown, Institute for Global Learning, facilitates dialogue with Crofton House students and educators during the launch of our 2025 – 2026 pilot.
and experiential design process. The Dialogue Advisory Group, established in 2024, guides this work with students, educators, school leaders, and the Head of School.
As a School, we explored the capacities that support meaningful dialogue, how they develop from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12, and where existing experiences could be connected and expanded. We chose to learn through experience, using a shared dialogue structure as a common reference. Our partnership with the Institute for Global Learning has enabled students and educators to develop facilitation skills, participate in international dialogues, and learn with others doing similar work.
In the spring, we were invited to share the School’ s emerging practice and approach at conferences hosted by the Institute for Global Learning in Atlanta and the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools in Toronto.
DIALOGUE IN ACTION
During the 2025 – 2026 school year, we piloted dialogue in selected settings, with students and educators helping shape its development. By May 2026, more than 400 students, predominantly in the Senior School,
and 50 educators had taken part. Student facilitators and educators participated in, facilitated, and studied dialogues together.
We noticed early that lived experience offered students an accessible way into complex issues. In the Ivy Compass Program, students explored topics including food security, environmental sustainability, and the rights of women through the questions: What is your experience? What is your perspective? What has shaped your perspective?
“ Rather than observing these issues from a distance, dialogue has allowed our students to connect with the topics on a personal level,” Shannon Wilson, Assistant Coordinator, Experiential Learning( Ivy Compass Program), Senior School, reflected.“ It honours the diverse backgrounds of our students and staff. It gives us the intentional space to slow down, listen, and transform individual reflections into meaningful, shared understanding.”
Twenty students in Grade 9 – 12 trained as dialogue facilitators with the Institute for Global Learning, with five achieving advanced certification. Through repeated dialogues and reflection, they recognized dialogue as another valuable way of engaging with others.
One Grade 12 facilitator noticed a shift in conversations with her mom and sisters, whether discussing everyday interests or current world news:“ Now, I find myself slowing down to first listen and ask questions... helping me understand where another family member’ s perspective comes from and shift our discussions toward more open conversations.”
One Grade 9 facilitator and debate enthusiast described dialogue as‘ another tool in my communication toolkit,’ recognizing that different moments call for different ways of engaging— to persuade, evaluate evidence, make decisions, or listen to understand.
A 10-week Professional Learning Community brought together 15 staff members across grades, disciplines, and roles to consider when and how dialogue might deepen student learning and complement other forms of inquiry.
As a school community, we have noticed what meaningful dialogue asks of students. Sharing their experience of a topic often comes
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