Hosted by Linda Ellinor and Nancy Dixon of the US Academy of Professional Dialogue.
Tzofnat is a scholar-practitioner studying the cultural, social, and psychological dynamics underlying the transformation of relationships and conflict.
Tzofnat’s experience comes from her work in Israel with Democratic Schools where students and staff members have an equal vote on decision making and conflict resolution. These schools are based on the underlying assumption that a child who experiences democracy and respect-based relationships when growing up is more likely to continue to do the same as an adult. She also worked in Dialogic schools, influenced by the I-Thou framework of Martin Buber. In Dialogic Schools students did reflective work on self-other relations with the focus was less on individual self-development than on transforming the way they perceived the relationships between self and other – where others are seen as equal partners in co-creating reality. Tzofnat questions whether democracy, with its focus on individualism, is sufficient without dialogic interaction.