We use the term "multi-racial learning community" to describe a group learning practice that involves building a community as well as building the capacities of individuals within the community. Multi-racial learning communities challenge conventional institutional frameworks and encourage learning on many levels.

Learning involves the development of:

	critical thinking,
	emotional and personal engagement, and
	communication and interaction skills, not only from the teacher but from each other.

A learning community emphasizes the development of the group’s capacity to solve problems collaboratively and to remain committed to individual and joint learning. Using relevant differences in perspective, the community destabilizes received wisdom and generates new and more complex understandings.

A multi-racial learning community consciously attends to internal and external sources of power (including racial identity, gender, social class and professional role) in shaping the group’s membership, the dynamics of group interaction, and the content of the inquiry. People’s racial, gender or class position can affect how they participate; it may also influence their background assumptions and lead to intragroup conflict.

Conflict is inevitable in diverse groups. The critical question is not whether conflict arises, but how it is addressed. Multiracial learning communities respond to this challenge.

… more on conflict