January is Diversity Celebration Month - Week Two

Welcome to week two of our Diversity Celebration Month. If you have not read the January Blog, here is the link (this post will make much more sense after having read or listened to it first). And just to note, if you are already incorporating these kinds of strategies--you are amazing and creating an inclusive and safe place for others. It also significantly increases a student's ability to comprehend the important content in our classes. Keep at it and be encouraged that this work helps our students to be the success that we know they can be--no matter what life throws at them. You are a difference-maker.   

No Child Eats Alone Challenge

Take a moment today and see how the students are doing. Are there any students eating or playing alone? Find ways to help all students participate in school and feel like they belong. Encourage other students to go make a new friend with one of the students who seem to always be on the edge of the playground, campus, or cafeteria.  

Diversity Ideas for the Week

Below are a couple of inclusion strategies to help all students feel welcome. 

The First Idea: Focus on Human Values 




Why Focus on Human Values?

Get to know the community we are building in as many different ways as possible. Anchor all of our decision-making in human values. 

In order to create a genuine shared power across communities and help all feel like they belong, place relationships at the center of our work. To do this, invest in the work necessary to know our students and recognize the expertise of the people who are closest to the issues. Listen attentively and honor the stories that are shared with us. Honor the humanity of our school teams (students and staff) and create space for reflection.

How:

  • Listen from a place of love. Be humble and acknowledge that we are not the expert.
  • Honor the stories, experiences, and emotions that community members share.
  • Stay connected to the community we are working with through every phase of our work.
  • Be a participant in collective sense-making.

That's it! Thanks for being a part of our D7 Family 


The Second Idea: Build Relational Trust


Invest in relationships with intention, especially across differences. Honor stories. Practice empathetic listening. 

Why?

Relational trust is the glue for inclusive practices. When working across our differences, particularly with difficult challenges, we must invest in each other to develop trust, share openly, and collaborate authentically. In essence, to help everyone feel safe in our learning environments. 

If we are courageous in identifying and processing emotions with our team, we create opportunities for understanding and healing in our work.

How:

  • Facilitate personal connection by inviting people to share what matters to them.
  • Dedicate time and space for people to bring forward their full selves and identities.
  • Demonstrate the importance of nonjudgmental listening.
  • Create space for the community to reflect, express, and process thoughts and emotions.
  • Cultivate a culture that invites dialogue and collective sense-making.

See if there is a way to incorporate one of these strategies into class and school discussions. A little investment in building relational trust can go a long way in helping us create more inclusive school communities where everyone feels like they belong. 

Thanks for being a part of our D7 family and creating safe spaces for everyone to belong.

We are GP! We all belong. 


Liberatory Design is the result of a collaboration between Tania Anaissie, David Clifford, Susie Wise, and the National Equity Project [Victor Cary and Tom Malarkey]. This deck is under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

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