“Being disconnected from your cultural heritage can lead you to question who you really are and where you belong. This may cause you to feel lost and isolated. Connecting with culture can have a positive impact on your sense of belonging and identity – and in turn, on your mental health and overall wellbeing.”
~Head to Health
Kind hearts!
I come to you from the Office of Culture and Community. Isn’t that a cool new name? I’m excited because the former name, Office of Inclusivity, didn’t capture the nuances of what it means to be an inclusive community.
The term “inclusivity” can be limiting in so many ways because it assumes that everyone in the community feels included. To be sure, that is the goal of any school, but the term doesn’t capture the complexities of that work. The new name, Office of Culture and Community, deepens our cultural humility in ways that challenge how we define who we are and where we want to be. It’s ever evolving, and that makes it nimble, and in some cases, fearless.
In the many conversations I’ve had with some of you since I came to CA, the thought of inclusivity can feel binary—either you are included, or you’re not. It suggests that we are all having the same experience. In a school as diverse and complex as Colorado Academy, that is not a realistic expectation. Simply being included on this campus is not the same as being seen on campus every day. This is where the work of inclusivity gets stuck.
Most people loathe doing the inner work required to explore one’s own identities and lived experiences in relation to others. We are just not good at it. For some, it can lead to feelings of shame and guilt. And for others, no matter what your background is, it’s usually the first time many have had to reconcile the privileges you were either born into or worked hard for, while some of us didn’t have either option. The rub? Behind EVERY privilege there is an imbalance of power. It’s invisible to those who possess it and ever-present for those who don’t because privilege is the opposite oppression. Good or bad, it just is.
Work around diversity and inclusivity can make people anxious and uncomfortable. It doesn’t have to. However, we must be willing to listen and recognize that there are members of our community who have been marginalized by society—and here at CA, too. We do not want those members of our community to disconnect and become invisible. that is the foundation of the work we intend to do.
So, where do we start?
First, call out the importance of unpacking our school culture and climate. The Association of Colorado Independent Schools (ACIS) has pointed out that Colorado Academy has a healthy school culture—rightly so. But how do we know? Where is the evidence? What even is the definition of both culture and climate?
In my experience, it is difficult to have a positive school culture without seeing that show up in the climate. I’m known as someone who can pick up the culture and climate of any organization pretty well. For instance, I can walk into a school and walk right back out because I know it’s not a healthy place to be. But when I walk into a school that has a healthy school culture and climate, I can feel that, too.
School culture is about the way things are done. It’s the personality of a school that underlines norms and values that shape patterns of behavior, attitudes, and expectations between stakeholders in the school. A school’s culture is always at work, either helping or hindering learning. It influences every decision and action, from the leadership style of the principals to the way teachers choose curriculum materials and interact with students.
School climate, however, is the heart and soul of the school. It is the attitude, the behaviors and points of view exhibited and experienced by students, teachers, families, and other stakeholders. It’s the feeling that either encourages teachers and students to engage, love the school, and want to be a part of it, or to reject the school and disengage from it. It is the outcome of the school’s culture, norms, and values, the way in which people at the school relate to and interact with one another, and the way systems and policies manifest.
School climate includes major spheres of school life such as safety, relationships, teaching and learning, and the environment, as well as larger organizational patterns (e.g., from fragmented to shared; healthy or unhealthy). These dimensions not only shape how students feel about being in school; they also encourage them to take more risks in their learning, while teachers are responsible for all learners.
Second, it’s important that we focus on our bright spots, too. This isn’t about what we did to create them. These bright spots typically show up organically, and what is most important is the heart and soul of that spot—“who did that?” When we call out the bright spots in our community that we are most proud of, it forces us to also analyze the parts of us that are so ugly that we just remove ourselves from them entirely—things we’re not proud about. “Who did THAT?”
Finally, the last part is where we will spend the bulk of our time. It’s the hard work of naming those cultural bright spots that are the magic of CA and calling attention to the cultural barriers that hinder us and, in some instances, have caused harm. We must continue to refine the school’s culture in order to live out the values (climate) we aspire toward. And in order to do that, it means naming out loud the bright spots that make us Mustangs. It also means we must be honest about who we are, both internally and externally. What does that mean? It means that who we are on the inside is what is reflected on the outside. And good or bad, it just is.
When I first started at CA, there were two questions I knew I had to ask. I was hesitant at first, because of how much trust I hadn’t earned yet. I knew that whatever questions I wanted to ask, the community would need me to hold the gift of their vulnerability as sacred. I also needed to know how far I could take us in creating CA’s “beloved community.” To be incredibly clear, “beloved” community has “belonging” at the center. Belonging is the living inspiration of who we already are and aspire to be. It’s the outcome of the work we put into building a healthy school culture and climate that gets us closer to living out our true North Star, our mission and values.
The first question I asked was, “How do we want to be for and with each other?” It should be simple enough. The second question came to me when I was walking around campus trying to figure out the essence of the school: “What is the heart and soul of CA?” When I started to ask that question, most people couldn’t answer it. Here’s what I do know: the answer to that question doesn’t leave out our academics, our performing arts, our athletic programs, or any of the ancillary programs we offer. Asking about the heart and soul of the community means you actually participate in it by either dismantling it or building it up. Most of us don’t even know that we move between dismantling and building. That’s just honest.
So, what do we do with all of this? Well, did you notice I didn’t say anything about “equity,” not once? I didn’t need to, actually. When you start to focus on the culture of a school, you do that relative to how individuals in the school community define themselves. For example, if students of color feel like there are many unspoken rules when talking about race in their classes, it’s the principal’s job to support and coach teachers on instruction for all students in that classroom. The lesson here is to plan specifically around students of difference.
It’s not about the teacher as a person; it’s the behavior of that teacher you want to understand. And, what you may unpack from addressing the behavior is that teachers are afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing, so they don’t say or do anything. Once you clarify, you can practice a teaching strategy called language setting. It is a simple way to introduce and prepare students for what they may hear or experience relative to what is being taught: topic, context, function, and form. This strategy provides teachers with a tool that is easy to practice and implement while also building intellectual humility for all. That means we encourage vulnerability and resilience on both sides. The same is true for other intersections of identity that show up in the classroom.
That’s all I’ve got. As we work through some of this thinking, we will develop a framework that brings us all together to ideate and co-create a culture framework that operates in tandem with the strategic plan. Every member of this community will take part; we all own the work and we will hold ourselves accountable to it. This work is not separate from anything we already do; we just plan to amp it up. Remember, Mustangs are surefooted, agile, and hardy, with incredible stamina. Mustangs are known for their intelligence, trainability, and even temperament. That’s what Mustangs do. It’s who we are.
Throughout the rest of the year, I will write about the values articulated in the mission and vision of our strategic plan. I may also add some additional values we may want to consider. I will also update you all on where we are as it relates to the development of the framework—essentially our work plan. I value transparency and honesty, so I will always write from that place.
Next month, I will write about centering compassion as one of the building blocks that helps us understand the nuts and bolts that go into cultivating a “beloved community.”
If you have ideas you would like to share that relate to compassion, just email me.
I look forward to sharing sacred space with you.
Mpaka tukutane tena (“until we meet again” in Swahili),
Collinus