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Open inquiry and constructive dialogue

Harvard and its Schools are implementing new programming and initiatives to foster and enhance respectful and constructive dialogue and civil discourse and promote an academic culture where diverse perspectives can be respectfully explored, challenged, and developed. Highlights include: The President’s Building Bridges Fund, training and workshops sponsored by the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics, and events and activities on School-specific topics (law, education, etc.) More information can be found on the Dialogues website.

Last updated December 2025 

Promoting open inquiry through training

  • Mandatory training for new TFs/TAs at the Bok Center. In August 2025, as part of its inaugural Fall Teaching Week, the Bok Center launched Pedagogy-in-Practice, a mandatory training for new TFs/TAs, where among other skills new instructors in the FAS learned how to ensure the classroom is a place to explore different and competing views on complex questions. The Bok Center’s Fall Teaching Week also included a range of new sessions for new and more experienced TFs/TAs alike. These included Teaching Controversial Topics, Navigating Teaching Team Dynamics, and Inclusive Teaching (with an emphasis on Non-Discrimination and Anti-Bullying), among others.

  • Harvard Law School Teaching Fellows training. In September 2025, Harvard Law School held two training sessions for fall term teaching fellows which provided an introduction to University and Law School policies and coverage of professional norms (drawing in part on the Bok Center’s materials for training teaching fellows), including the importance of considering, especially when discussing unrelated subject matters, how the TF’s personal views could inhibit students from expressing their own.

  • Bok Graduate Fellows in Civil Discourse and Classroom Practice. For the 2025-26 Academic Year, the Bok Center inaugurated a cohort of Bok Graduate Fellows in Civil Discourse and Classroom Practice who are working with fellow graduate students and faculty in their home departments and divisions on implementing civil discourse pedagogy in graduate student teaching.

  • Harvard Business School Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning trainings. Building on Harvard Business School’s commitment to constructive dialogue as part of the case method pedagogy, the Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning (CCTL) at HBS provided faculty with best practices on “Encouraging Open Discussion in the Classroom” including creating space for different perspectives, being mindful of personal biases, and turning challenging moments into learning opportunities.  This outreach supplemented online training videos, tip sheets, and seminars the CCTL makes available throughout the year.
  • Harvard Divinity School new teacher training. In August 2025, Harvard Divinity School provided new teacher training to its faculty, which spoke to rules and expectations regarding academic freedom and rights and responsibilities.  HDS also held a training session for its entire faculty in October 2025, in collaboration with the Bok Center, on free inquiry and constructive dialogue in the classroom. In addition, new teaching fellows at HDS are required to receive training through the Bok Center, which speaks to a number of these same issues.
  • Harvard Business School new faculty orientation. The START faculty orientation program includes sessions on encouraging respectful disagreement. At the start of 2025-26 Academic Year, the MBA Required Curriculum (RC) faculty chair met with all RC teaching faculty and discussed key themes in effective instruction including making sure a wide range of perspectives can be heard in the classroom.
  • Training for Harvard Medical School teaching fellows and assistants on open inquiry. In August and September 2025, a series of synchronous training sessions on teaching excellence, including a session on facilitating dialogue and defusing conflict in the classroom, was given to Harvard Medical School teaching fellows/teaching assistants. These sessions complement asynchronous training materials available to faculty and teaching fellows/teaching assistants on the Teaching Essentials Canvas page (launched summer 2025) within the “Fostering Open Inquiry in the Classroom” module.
  • Harvard Chan School of Public Health teaching workshops. The Harvard Chan School of Public Health Office of Education is offering several peer teaching workshops in fall 2025, which are open to all faculty members and course instructors at the school. The October 2025 topic is “Creating a Positive Learning Culture in Your Classroom.”

Fostering constructive dialogue through programs, events, and initiatives

  • Viewpoint diversity initiative. In April 2025, President Garber committed to accelerating the work to establish a University-wide initiative to promote and support viewpoint diversity.
  • President’s Building Bridges Fund. In the 2024-25 Academic Year, through the President’s Building Bridges Fund, the University funded and launched student-led projects to promote a culture that fosters community among affinity groups and encourages constructive dialogue on interfaith and/or intercultural issues. A second round of funding was announced in October 2025 for the 2025-26 Academic Year.
  • Intellectual Vitality Initiative. Harvard College has continued to advance its Intellectual Vitality Initiative, an effort focused on promoting respectful dialogue, open and rigorous inquiry, and thoughtful listening through a series of events, programs, and curriculum offerings. Along with a new website to increase awareness, additional efforts include sponsoring civil disagreement fellowships for House tutors and working lessons about civil disagreement into the College’s Expository Writing class.
  • Institutional Voice Principles. In May 2024, Harvard adopted its Institutional Voice Principles and will not “issue official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the university’s core function” as an academic institution. Institutional statements on matters not related to the University’s core functions risk creating an environment counter to the University’s mission of being a community where open inquiry, debate and the careful weighing of evidence is embraced in classrooms and other settings.  The University can and will continue to speak out on matters relevant to its core function, such as free and open inquiry, teaching, and research.
  • Open Inquiry and Constructive Dialogue principles. In October 2024, the University adopted its Open Inquiry and Constructive Dialogue principles to “reinforce the free exchange of ideas, rigorous discourse, and empathy for all members of our learning communities.” An update on the implementation of the principles and recommendations can be found on the Harvard Dialogues webpage.
  • Research into practice at Faculty of Arts and Sciences. As part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Civil Discourse Initiative and in collaboration with the Bok Center and the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics (ELSCE), FAS has developed a number of trainings and workshops for instructors designed to put faculty’s civil discourse-related research into practice, provide training to instructors on how to teach negotiation in courses across Harvard, and provide scholars with instruction on how to overcome barriers to civil discourse.
  • Debate series from ELSCE and FAS Civil Discourse Initiative. Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Civil Discourse Initiative have ongoing programming typically open to the entire Harvard community, including “Ethics IRL”, that includes public debates and discussions that span a range of viewpoints. In fall 2025, the Division of Arts & Humanities launched the Public Culture Project, which aims to revivify shared public life by placing existential, moral, and even spiritual questions at the center of our public conversations. The first event, “How is digital technology shaping the human soul?” took place on October 1, 2025, and the next event, “God in the American Story” is scheduled for February 2026.
  • Harvard School of Dental Medicine working group. In fall 2025, Harvard School of Dental Medicine launched a Working Group on Constructive Dialogue and Belonging charged to work intensively over nine months to develop practical recommendations to foster a culture of pluralism and belonging at HSDM and continue building capacity for constructive dialogue and open inquiry.
  • Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Constructive Engagement Working Group. In spring 2025, the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health launched a Working Group on Constructive Engagement, with representatives from students, staff, trainees, and faculty. The working group is charged with developing practical recommendations for sustaining healthy pluralism at the School by nurturing an inclusive culture, encouraging open inquiry, and building capacity within all segments of the community to engage respectfully across differences.
  • Harvard Chan Studio Constructive Engagement series. The Harvard Chan Studio is hosting a series of events designed to model and encourage constructive engagement across differences.  Each such event also includes discussion of effective tactics for working across the aisle to make progress.
  • Intellectual Vitality and Free Expression Student Summit. In January 2024, Harvard College and PEN America hosted the Intellectual Vitality and Free Expression Student Summit aimed at fostering open, productive communication.
  • Open Minds in Dialogue conference. In October 2024, the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, along with the Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning, hosted the “Open Minds in Dialogue” conference focusing on challenges to free inquiry and how best to foster open, rigorous conversations in academic settings.
  • Fellowship in Values Engagement. As of spring 2024, the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics began engaging in a Center-wide effort to expand its longstanding work on civil discourse, including a new Fellowship in Values Engagement. The Fellowship works with resident tutors to foster intellectual vitality by promoting ethical reflection and a culture of civil disagreement in undergraduate community life.
  • Harvard Kennedy School Candid and Constructive Conversations Working Group. Following the work of its Candid and Constructive Conversations Working Group, Harvard Kennedy School is implementing recommendations on building a stronger culture of engagement, including through new training modules on civil discourse and modeling difficult conversations.
  • Cultivating Deeper Conversations at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Harvard Graduate School of Education is continuing its work with Skip the Small Talk, an organization that provides trained facilitators to guide groups in cultivating deeper conversations. HGSE held its first Skip the Small Talk session for students in October 2025.

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