Narrative Group Work®

Being open to new things and open-minded, treating others with humanity and solidarity, and fostering a sense of community and belonging – this has not always been easy for students. The skills of having an open conversation in a group, honestly sharing personal attitudes, listening attentively, asking questions with confidence, and actively engaging on the spot also need to be learned and constantly practiced. Cultures Interactive has developed the Narrative Dialogue Groups® to support schools in implementing these important objectives of democracy education and conflict resolution, based on the training of dialogue skills in groups. The dialogue groups – taking 1–2 hours per week, during one semester at least, in regular school hours – are offered as a new method of intensified civic education across Europe, particularly for classes and schools facing particular challenges.

Intensified civic education that connects subject matters and emotions

The urgent need for in-depth personal training in dialogue and democracy is further underlined by increasing social polarisation – and by phenomena such as AI-generated misinformation and widespread conspiracy theories. Forms of group-focused hostility and anti-democratic attitudes, as well as populist positions that are put forward emotionally and elude rational debate, are increasingly setting the tone – and this is also echoed in school classrooms. In structurally disadvantaged regions or districts, this is often exacerbated by the perception of being ‘left behind’ and not being heard by politicians and the media.

This makes it all the more important, particularly in schools, to create new spaces for confidential dialogue and foster the ability to engage with others and have constructive interactions beyond one’s comfort zone. These conversation groups, which are facilitated through narrative dialogue techniques and storytelling, encourage pupils to talk to one another, share personal experiences, articulate their own views, and engage in meaningful conversation, helping them to understand each other better. In doing so, pupils are acknowledged for their individual experiences, and they learn to be sincere with one another and with themselves. They also learn to deal constructively with their own feelings and insecurities, and to negotiate differences of opinion free from judgment and hostility.

School as a place for fostering dialogue, conflict resolution – and lived democracy

The Narrative Dialogue Groups® programme is specifically aimed at schools, as these remain an important socialisation and meeting place for young people from diverse backgrounds and with differing values. Furthermore, schools often seek helpful external support to cope with the various pressures through curricula and tight time constraints – and to become an effective learning environment for experiences of dialogue-based understanding and sustainable conflict resolution.

State ministries are also striving to make effective structural adjustments to education policy so that pupils can be properly prepared to participate responsibly in a free and democratic society. For it is becoming increasingly clear that one-off workshop events on democracy and human rights can no longer address the deep-seated uncertainty in children’s and young people’s political identity – and that (in fact, for quite some time now) the systematic incorporation of new elements of extracurricular, non-formal education into the core curriculum is called for.

The Narrative Dialogue Groups® in schools meet this need by creating, as part of the regular curriculum, a safe space for open conversations, trusting dialogue, and democracy in action. Methodologically, they build on well-established principles of narrative dialogue and group work, as practised in youth work and social therapy. External facilitators provide a fully self-determined and open-ended framework in which young people can talk about their concerns, experiences, views, and interests and build stronger relationships with one another.

In doing so, chronic tensions, animosities, and entrenched debates and conflicts fade into the background. For it is through narrative life-world storytelling that the individual experiences underlying opinions and resentments are revealed. Through narrative reflection, young people also reaffirm their democratic and human rights-based attitudes, take responsibility, and resolve hostile or cynical emotions. In this way, an intensified form of civic education takes place that combines content and emotion.

Acquire social skills and experience a sense of agency

The pupils come up with the content of their group conversation entirely on their own. Experience shows that, within the Narrative Dialogue Groups® setting, young people quickly identify their personal concerns and topics and address the tensions within their class and school. In doing so, they naturally also turn their attention to key social issues – (in)justice, bullying, violence, misanthropy, gender roles, friendship, family, participation, future prospects – which are, or can also be, part of subject-specific curricula. In the dialogue groups, however, the pupils explore these subjects based on their own experiences and motivations – and thus bring these subjects to life in a direct and immediate way.

In particular, sharing positive experiences of mutual respect, being listened to, equality, diversity, and difference plays a vital role in fostering democratic values and a respect for human rights among young people.

Dialogue groups bring schools and local communities together

However, the Narratives Dialogue Groups® are by no means isolated in themselves – nor is their impact limited to an hour and a half a week. Although they provide a confidential space facilitated by external specialists, the groups have important links to the wider social and institutional environment.

Probably the most important of these links is with school social work and local youth and family support services – which can be particularly effective, for example, in cases of pressing needs for counselling on addiction, violence or psychosocial issues, as well as exit support for leaving harmful environments. There is also a link to the school's teaching of the curriculum (e.g., in history, languages, ethics, and social studies). This is because the group dialogue can, in an anonymised manner, provide valuable thematic input for lesson planning, thereby significantly enhancing the subject-specific learning motivation of children and young people. The link to a systemic ‘school counselling from the bottom up’ can help to address structural problems within the institution (e.g., issues relating to management, staff, or the overall organisation).

Last but not least, the obvious interface with the community or neighbourhood where the pupils live can be worked with. There, through small, voluntary interview and dialogue tasks arising from their internal group exchange with one another, they can engage with their families and neighbours – potentially even conducting “bridge-building dialogues” – and bring their experiences and reflections back to the group.

Deepened through intensified civic education pedagogy yet also connected to the local community – in this way, the Narrative Dialogue Groups® can become transgenerational factors in the young people’s development of personal responsibility as well as in democracy-building community work at the local level.

Target group

Primarily pupilsin 7th grade and above—in all types of schools.