Building the WE to Engage Students, Families and Communitiesiel.org/sites/default/files/90 Building...
Transcript of Building the WE to Engage Students, Families and Communitiesiel.org/sites/default/files/90 Building...
Building the WE to Engage
Students, Families and Communities
Brittany R. Pope, MSOhioGuidestone | Coordinator of Applied Clinical Sciences
2018 National Family & Community Engagement Conference
Friday July 13, 2018 9:15-10:30am Session
About Today
Today’s Themes:
• Relationship Building & Trust
• Promote Inclusion, Ensure Equity and Create
• Parent Leadership, Advocacy and Community
Today’s Goal: Demonstrate ways to better engage others using approachable and accessible terminology and concepts from neuroscience and psychology.
Today’s Learning Objectives:
• Identify interpersonal behaviors that either encourage or discourage engagement.
• Comprehend the connection of basic brain science, such as emotions and attachment, to interpersonal relationships.
• List at least 3 free tactics or behaviors to attempt to build trust within their personal and, or professional communities.
• Summarize theories and research that demonstrates the power of building relationships and trust on ones ability to connect, understand, empathize and engage others.
(in laymen’s terms)
About Today
In Short:
• We’re going to talk about BRAINS, Humans, Others & Ourselves
• I’m going to ask you to participate (It’s an Engagement Conference, so…)
• Pro: I won’t read the PowerPoint word-for-word
• Con: I plead the 5th (I’m biased, Ok?! Hint- we’re going to touch on biases!)
• We’re going to talk honestly about
• “Us vs Them”
• Students & Families we do/do NOT [fill in the blank]
• What do we really need to better engage others?
Who is Who?
Us versus Them
US
• Correct, Wise, Moral, Worthy,
Noble, Loyal
• Us Shortcomings:
Circumstance
• Them Shortcomings:
Inherent Qualities
THEM
• Assess others on a Warmth &
Competent Scale
• Blocks ability to be Attuned and
Empathetic
Us versus Them:
What the Brain has to Say
• Brain naturally drives judgements base on difference
• Categorization and Discrimination of all things
• Especially Others, or “THEM”
• Brain gets quicker at making differences:
• Subconscious, even Implicit Biases
Response to Difference
Warmth & Competence
WA
RM
TH
COMPETENCE
Them:Low Warmth | Hi Competence
(definitely not “US”)
Them: Lo Warmth| Lo Competence
(definitely not “US”)
US: High Warmth| Hi Competence
US: Lo Warmth| Lo Competence Them: High Warmth| Lo Competence
The Brain and Engagement
• Social Engagement:
• Promotes positive social interactions
• Reduces psychological distance
• Promotes sense of safety between people
• Neuroception: neural detection of environmental risk
• Modulates behavior and physiological state to support adaptive behaviors in response
to safe, dangerous, life-threatening environments
Fire Alarms Block Engagement:
Meet the Amygdala
The Brain and Engagement:
“When It Falls Down”
&%$@
The Brain and Engagement:
Neuroception
• Detecting safety is inclusive of the detection of risk
• When Safety Detected: “Amygdala” Alarm dampens
• When Danger Detected –or- Neuroception Distorted: stress
response system activated and persists
• Limiting or Preventing Engagement
The Brain and Engagement:
Neuroception & Impact on Engagement
• 3 Basic Mindsets or “Ethics”
• Safety Ethic
• Imagination Ethic
• Engagement Ethic
POP QUIZ: Multiple ChoiceHow to Promote Student, Family & Community Engagement?
Response to Difference
Interoception, Connectedness & Empathy
• Interoception- “felt experience” from information from one’s body, internal stimuli
• Connectedness- ability to mutually regulate physiological and behavioral state
• Neurobiological mechanism to link social behavior to mental and physical health
• Empathy- Hard-wired in our brains
• “Mirror Neurons”
• Allows us to relieve one’s stress and to make one another happy
“Social networks that encompass a “we” perspective promote family and
community stakeholders and reduce violence and aggression…”
• Fight “Us versus Them” mentality with a “WE” perspective
• Safety Ethic can decrease when individuals feel they belong to a social network or community
that does not define itself as “Us versus Them”
• Corrects Neuroception
• Promotes Engagement because of perception of Safety & Community
“Systems that are well constructed with companionship care
lead to empathetic effectivity roots and communal autonomy”
Steps to Building the WE
• Build Relationships & Networks with Empathy
• Respect Individuation and Shared Values
• Unify People on Equal and Equitable Terms
• Resist “Us –v- Them” Definitions
• Stop Indifference
• Proactively and Purposefulyy Seek Creative ways to Build the We
Steps to Building the WE:
“Partnership Configuration”
• EMPOWER Others
• Equitable and Equal Partnerships
• Denounce Abuse & Violence (& Indifference)
• Enhance Human Morality via Empathy and Mutual Respect
Steps to Building the WE:
“Think, Reason, Question”
• RESIST Intuitions
• Fundamentally Flawed (“Warmth & Competence”)
• Based upon stories, truths
we’ve told ourselves
• Distract from Implicit Biases
that drive “Us versus Them”
“Take their perspective,
try to think what they think,
try to feel what they feel.
Take a deep breath,
and do it all again.”
Steps to Building the WE-
Promote & Support Diversity & Inclusion
Diversity
“The beneficial effects typically involve both
more knowledge about and more empathy
for the Thems.”
“Contact between a traditionally dominant group
and a subordinate minority [or group] usually
decreases prejudice more in the former;
the latter have high thresholds.”
Inclusion
“The workplace is a particularly effective
place for contact to do its salutary thing.
Decreased prejudice about the Thems [at
work] often generalizes to Thems at large,
and even sometimes to other types of
Thems.”
Building the We:
Rewire Your Brain
Building the We to Engage Students
• Warmth & Competence: How are you ranking your Students?
• Rewire Your Brain
• Change common perceptions held about children
• Consider various ways to engage students
• Especially the “Them” students
• Redesign your Classroom
Building the We to Engage Students
• Warmth & Competence: How are you ranking your Students’:
• Families?
• Neighborhoods/Communities?
• Rewire Your Brain
• How to overcome barriers?
• How to redefine your perspective of Families & Communities?
• Redesign your Approach
Awaken Natural Abilities to Engage:
Create a “Memory Lane”
• Build a Memory Lane
• All the Why’s that lead you to become an Educator and work with Youth and Families
• Empathy is based on what is within us
• When all else fails, put yourself in your Students & Families shoes
• How would you want to be treated?
• Self Compassion
Self Compassion Leads to Empathy and
Engagement of Others
Go & Engage!
Thank you!
Contact Information:
Brittany R. Pope, MS
OhioGuidestone 434 Eastland Drive Berea, OH 44017
Connect Online!