At the 2015 CIDER conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, professors Abelson and Nelson discussed their intense and inspiring level of instructor-student collaboration, describing how they collaborate with their first-year students in the design of particular assignments and even overall course design at the unit level. This essay seeks to contribute to both our understanding and appreciation of such collaborative learning-centered strategies by applying a "dialogical ethics" model. The essay begins with an extended investigation of the ways in which the dramatistic philosophy of Kenneth Burke illuminates the grammatical, rhetorical, and dialogical mechanisms by which instructor-student collaboration fosters enhanced levels of student engagement in the process of education--including investment, ownership, and empowerment. In doing so, this essay explores how the notions of (i) disparate grammars and recalcitrance, (ii) consubstantiality and irony, and (iii) dialogue of motives and peace treaty can elucidate the dynamics of instructor-student collaborative learning. Applying the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, this essay then argues that instructor-student collaboration is an inherently ethical pedagogy. Finally, consistent with the general topic of collaboration and theoretical framework of dialogue, this essay concludes with a response from those who inspired it, Abelson and Nelson.