Bullying, racism, and educational inequality in schools are subjects dominating most headlines these days. Luckily, adult Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs have provided solid resources to help tackle these issues from multiple angles. The social awareness component of SEL helps teachers and leaders understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts. And while some leaders incorporate these methods successfully, other school districts only offer these professional development courses as one-and-done training – only to be dismissed over time. And even with the best intentions and training, leaders and educators can still miss critical signals coming from students, colleagues, and the community.
So how do teachers and school district leaders create equity in today’s classrooms and how do they stay with this practice long after the workshops are over? According to one expert, it’s time to harness the power of listening. Join us as we interview educational leader Shane Safir about changing the conversation about equity, the practice of constructivist listening, and how to build long-term “relational capital” with students.
Building Relational Capital
With experience spanning 20 years in education, Shane Safir is a leader, coach, and writer who has worked at every school system level toward equity of opportunity for every student. Her book, The Listening Leader: Creating the Conditions for Equitable School Transformation, supports educators, administrators, and district leaders in tackling complex equity challenges. Endominance had the opportunity to speak with Safir about the power of listening. We begin our interview by asking what she believes is the biggest challenge when it comes to equity in today’s classrooms. Safir reveals, “There was this very clear pattern when I was called to provide coaching and leadership development. And nine times out of ten, it was a relational or staff culture problem that we were trying to work on. And when you looked at it closely, most of the time, it came down to a failure to listen or a struggle to listen. In my book, I tried to argue that listening is really the foundation of transformative equity-centered leadership.”
When asked how educators and administrators can practice and teach listening as part of the curriculum, Safir states, “I think a listening curriculum should center on students’ identity and the story of who they are in the world and what identities they carry that matter to them. Coupled with that, teachers should be trained in the foundation of just what it means to be a humanizing educator and how to listen deeply when a student is distressed.” She goes on to add, “If teachers knew how to slow down and really listen deeply to kids, I think we would create more identity safety and bypass a lot of those disciplinary structures that we always resort to.” Safir also discusses how colleagues need to practice strategies to really hear one another while also examining their own inner biases. We get into specific details about these approaches further into the interview below.
Listening Without An Agenda
So what does it mean to listen and really hear a student? It means getting out of a comfort zone and leaning into discomfort. Safir passionately states, “One of the first pieces of curriculum that are related to listening and is the first step toward equity is the practice of deep listening, or sometimes called constructivist listening, which came from Julian Weissglass’s work originally. It’s listening without an agenda.” She adds the benefits of this practice stating, “By listening without interrupting and holding space for the other person’s reflection, when you let go of any preconceived notions or extractive agendas, you give the gift of quality attention and care to another person. You build relational capital with that person and create an interpersonal currency that fuels school transformation.”
Julian Weissglass and his colleagues helped train educators to look directly at issues of racism and inequity through a series of professional development projects. According to an article in ASCD, Weissglass states, “We have come to understand the complex ways that bias and prejudice have become assimilated into our educational institutions.” Weissglass offers a few examples of these biases, including:
- Denying the effects of prejudice and discrimination. For example, “It wasn’t so bad. I made it through.”
- Intellectualizing and making pronouncements like “All children can learn” and focusing on statistics rather than addressing someone’s personal experiences.
- Confusing and sometimes unconsciously equating an individual’s painful experience with societal oppression with statements like “It may be tough for blacks and Hispanics in school, but I also was treated unfairly.”
Taking Inventory of Internal Bias
When developing constructivist listening, Weissglass centers on three strategies to ensure that people stay focused on their personal stories; respect one another; avoid blaming, criticizing, and analyzing; and are free to express their feelings constructively. Safir builds on these strategies and adds other methods and tools to help address structural barriers and interrupt unconscious biases. For example, she encourages an exercise to conduct a one-on-one interview with a student. According to an Edutopia article written by Safir, she states, “Interview a student to understand the root causes of learning or behavioral challenges. Invite them to meet with you outside of class. Tell the student that your purpose is to listen and to get to know them better to be a better teacher or leader. Then, she offers things to ask such as:
- Tell me about one area in which you’re struggling.
- What feedback do you have for me?
- How do you learn best?
- How could I support you to feel successful?
When asked how these practices and others help teachers overcome internal biases or structural barriers, Safir tells Endominance, “When a teacher is exhibiting implicit biases toward their students, and when that’s brought into their awareness, there’s a lot of pain or shame or embarrassment. So the practice of deep listening helps the person reconcile who they want to be, what they want to stand for, and value.” She adds, “And I think that’s where that lesson comes back in. It brings up many deep reflective questions that help the person sit with that dissonance and the gap between intention and action.”
In terms of educators and leaders, Safir writes in another article that colleagues need to practice many strategies to really hear one another, including “stop tone policing.” She explains, “To challenge implicit bias, we must listen to the voices of colleagues who have been underestimated or misjudged. Often, however, when people of color are brave enough to name bias in schools, they hear that they’re “too emotional” or “making things up.” There’s nothing made up about implicit bias. Learn from those who have the courage to speak up.”
Safir continues to believe, “Through the powerful practice of listening and an unwavering commitment to equity, we can dare to reimagine our schools as places of opportunity for every student.”
