PROJECTS INVOLVING DIALOGOS
Describes concrete examples of philosophical dialogue work involving The Dialogos Way
Leadership development and leader support
In the period 2021 - 2026, I have been hired, partly in leadership development work with the leadership group at Drammen High School, and partly as support in their work to reorganize parts of the school in the period 2022-2024.
The work has consisted of conducting various types of philosophical dialogues and exercises adapted to the situation the leaders, as groups or individual leaders, have found themselves in at any given time. The topics have covered everything from wise leadership and good meeting management, to the development of professional community and the importance of emotions.
We have met 3-5 full days throughout the year during this time. The project was initiated as a direct collaboration between me and Drammen High School, then became part of the University School Collaboration and Rikke A. Sundberg's doctoral thesis, and then in 2025 incorporated into Dekomp for High School.
Teaching team and professional community
During the period 2018-2022, I collaborated with the leadership group at Buskerud High School on the project Education and Value Enhancement. During this period, we tried in various ways to introduce philosophical dialogue into the school's practice.
First, we conducted individual dialogues with the entire staff, and then a voluntary course program for some of the teachers, who then conducted individual dialogues with groups of their colleagues, and in groups with students. Over the past year and a half, a full day (08:30-15:30) was set aside for employees in each of the sections at the school, respectively science, health and early childhood education, social studies, language, construction and civil engineering, electrical engineering, technology and industrial engineering, nature and farming, restaurant and food science, sales, service and tourism, boarding/canteen and mercantile support functions, janitor and cleaning, and alternative education.
The themes we explored grew out of the daily work of the teachers and staff at the various sections, but often revolved around the direct work with the students.
Teacher educators in Ukraine and India
In 2018-2019 and 2022, I led Dialogos’ philosophical dialogue projects with teacher educators in Ukraine and India, respectively. Some further tested such practices in their own contexts, and some reflected on their experiences in so-called reflexive action and practice research essays. The action learning process had four purposes:
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To provide teacher educators with the experience of participating in a Dialogos process for their own personal and professional development (Action Phase 1).
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To equip them with sufficient experience to be able to try out such dialogues and exercises with students in their own contexts (action phase 2).
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To let them present and reflect on their experiences, both their own and those of others (action phase 3).
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To write a reflexive practice research essay under supervision, and for the Indians – in co-authorship with me – based on one or some of their concrete experiences with Dialogos in their own practice (action phase 4).
The essays can be read in Helskog, Christensen and Aamaas (2025) and Helskog (2026), respectively.
The Gandhi Project: Multicultural and multireligious dialogue work
In 2007, I was awarded the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs' Gandhi Scholarship to test Dialogos practical philosophy in schools in multicultural and multi-religious dialogue work (the Gandhi Project). The purpose of the project was to develop practical knowledge that could contribute to dialogue and interpersonal understanding in a multi-religious and multicultural society.
In the project, I recruited a group of students with diverse cultural and philosophical backgrounds from a high school in central Eastern Norway. They participated in ten philosophical dialogues of 1.5 hours conducted over 13 weeks. The conversations were based on common human philosophical themes and exercises that were relevant to all participants.
Experiences from the project are described, analyzed and reflected upon in Helskog 2011, 2015, Stokke and Helskog 2014, Helskog and Stokke 2014, respectively.
More about the Gandhi Project in Aftenposten, December 2009 (norwegian):
Filosofi skal gi fred i skolegården
Conflict management and development of learning environments
Following the Gandhi Project, I was asked by the principal of the high school in question if I would be willing to try the Dialogos approach to philosophical dialogue in a class where there were major conflicts between the students. Some of the students had said that they were not sleeping at night, that they had stomach aches and dreaded going to school, that their grades were plummeting, and that they wanted to quit school.
Through the Dialogue Project, which also took place ten times, each lasting 1.5 hours, over three months in the spring of 2010, the conflict gradually resolved. After the ninth dialogue, one of the students expressed that he was happy because the conflict was over, everyone was friends and working together, and he looked forward to going to school every day.
The project is described, analyzed and reflected upon in Helskog 2013 and 2014, respectively.
Still Parents – GOOD ENOUGH cooperation after breakup
In the work of developing and then revising the book and course program Continuing Parents – GOOD ENOUGH cooperation after a breakup, the pilot course participants, future course leaders and now couples therapy students participated in philosophical dialogues. Two of the questions I often used were “What does it mean to see a child?” and “What does it mean to let go of something?” .
The main idea of the pilot courses was to guide the participants in a process that would ideally involve increased understanding of the children's life situation and downplaying any conflict with the ex-partner. By allowing the participants to reflect on the possibility of acceptance, reconciliation and possibly forgiveness for themselves, the hope was to help them create a new direction in life, both for themselves and their children. Feedback suggests that this, to some extent, happened for several.
Original course schedule at Modum Bad:
Continued Parents
Also offered by the Family Welfare Offices in Norway, under the auspices of Bufetat/Familial Welfare Offices, which:
1) Self-study course: Continuing Parenting – Course for good parental cooperation
2) Group courses: Courses at the Family Welfare Service
Teaching and supervision in teacher education and ordinary HE-study programs
In my assignments and positions in the higher education sector, I have incorporated Dialogos and philosophical practice into teaching since 2005. This in various subjects and at all levels from bachelor's to master's courses, practical pedagogical education (PPU) and PhD and first lecturer courses (UHKOMUT).
This is both in the form of pure philosophical dialogues and exercises, in the form of dialogue- and formation-oriented teaching and guidance, and in the form of essay writing, which is also a form of philosophical practice.
See, among others, Helskog, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, Helskog and Torgersen 2021, Helskog and Angeltun 2026 under the tab "Research articles".