COLLABORATE!

Committing to Shared Beliefs

As you engage in the day to day work of transforming education for each student, your collective core values should drive your thoughts, words, and actions.

It is rare that all members of a team share the exact same core values and what they look like in action. And that’s okay. It is important to take the time to identify and establish common core values as a team so that you are rowing your boat in the same direction, with the same vision.

A possible path to get you there is through using a process like “Identifying Collective Core Values.” The key to this collaborative approach is the discussion and coming to a consensus on your shared values and the language used to articulate them. The more you intentionally highlight core values in action, the more internalized and aligned your actions and words become a living part of your school culture. 

When we collectively operate with our core values in mind we bring them to life. We hold each other accountable to them when our actions and words don’t match. It is our responsibility to live the values individually and collectively to serve students.

TRANSFORM!

Changing the Discourse

“Our beliefs influence our actions, which can either reproduce OR transform results and outcomes.”  (National Equity Project)

In last month’s Blast, our colleague Holli Hanson, wrote, “Words and language are a powerful part of our lives, conveying what we think, believe and feel. What we value as humans. They have the power to uplift or tear down, transform or cast blame, energize or deflate, inspire learning and growth or keep us stagnant.”

In the work of school improvement, words and language can be doors to possibilities or they can maintain the status quo and perpetuate inequities in our school systems. If we truly want to transform our systems, we need to start with our beliefs; more specifically with how our beliefs show up in our language. In chapter 6 of their book, Race, Ethnicity, and Multiculturalism Policy and Practice, Changing the Discourse in Schools, authors Eugene Eubanks, Ralph Parish, and Dianne Smith suggest that the way in which educators talk about school and the language used is an area to be closely examined. They introduce us to the language framework of Discourse I (DI) and Discourse II (DII). Discourse I language is often more static in nature, maintaining the status quo. While Discourse II language encourages educators to shift their mindsets and beliefs from the language of complaint to commitment and the language of blame to personal responsibility. 

How do we put this theory into practice? 

• Read chapter 6 of Race, Ethnicity, and Multiculturalism Policy and Practice. Changing the Discourse in Schools. OR read the excerpted text

• Examine one of these T-charts through the lens of the reading

  • National Equity Project’s DI & DII chart 

  • San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools (SFCESS)

• Reflect on the following prompts from the National Equity Project:

  • What kind of discourse do I hear and participate in?

  • What’s the discourse like at my workplace with my colleagues?

  • What is the cost and impact of ‘unproductive discourse’ on what you are trying to accomplish?

  • What would it take for YOU to suspend judgment when you hear unproductive discourse so that you can take leadership to shift it to something more productive?

• Identify a next step that will move you closer to changing the discourse.

Where are you in your improvement efforts - stuck in Discourse I or pressing yourself to be critically reflective engaging in Discourse II?