A critical task for communication educators is preparing students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes for active and responsible participation within a rapidly changing global community. Given the complex nature of the challenges citizens will tackle in this century, there is a pressing need for educational approaches that will cultivate more dynamic and systemic understandings of cross-cultural messages, social experiences, and civic participation. This teacher-research study reports the findings of a semester-long project in which conflictual content and group dialogue were utilized to promote critical reflection and transformative learning among college students in a small group communication class. A qualitative methodology and interpretive framework were used to collect and analyze the data. The analysis of data indicated three general findings: an enhanced sense of ambiguity and complexity, instances of adult learning and trans- formative development and influences on the classroom environment. Educational possibilities for transformative learning experiences are examined, and implications are discussed for theory and practice in communication education. (Contains 3 endnotes.)