Trust Is the Beginning Place - 3-Minute Video with Transcript, Discussion Questions, and Selected References

Episode 4: Trust Is the Beginning Place

Discussion Questions

1. Describe the level of trust in your school:

1. between staff and students

2. between staff and parents

3. among staff

4. among students

2. What can you do individually and as a staff to increase the levels of trust?

1st Frame:

Hello! I’m Julie McDaniel-Muldoon, Safety and Well-Being Consultant at Oakland Schools. I created the Supportive Strategies Series with 3-minute episodes of strategies I think might be helpful to you, especially during this extraordinary time. These short and sweet episodes are based on research and best practice. Episode Trust Is the Beginning Place. Let’s begin.

2nd Frame:

The CDC in collaboration with SAMHSA established 6 guiding principles for trauma-informed care. While safety is the number 1 consideration, trustworthiness is number 2. Trust is an essential part of strong and supportive school cultures. It is integral to effective organizational change, successful school reform and more. As author Barbara Smith writes, “Trust…is the beginning place, the foundation upon which more can be built.”

 3rd Frame:

Placing trust in another involves two considerations. The first consideration is a person’s willingness to be vulnerable to another. It acknowledges the potential for being hurt. The second consideration is placing confidence in another being benevolent, reliable, competent, honest, and open. Both the willingness to be vulnerable and the perception of benevolence are necessary for trust.

4th Frame:

Building the trust needed for healthy and supportive schools requires shifting this interperson concept to an organizational perspective. This trust is relational trust and is found is social exchanges.  It is reflected by respect, personal regard, competence, and integrity. Researchers Bryk and Schneider explain that relational trust is the connective tissue that binds us together to advance the education and welfare of students.

5th Frame:

Research on trust suggests that assuming positive intention is the most important component of building trust. Trust in schools requires psychological safety where people speak freely, honestly, and openly. Building trust in an online context is more challenging, but is possible. It requires predictable patterns of actions, ongoing communication, positive social atmosphere, constant feedback, and transparency of motive. Building trust must be a deliberate and transparent process with ongoing monitoring and adjustment. Trust is the beginning place, the foundation upon which more can be built.

Final Frame:

 All of this content is based on solid research and best practice. Please contact me for references, more resources, and suggested topics for future episodes: julie.mcdaniel@oakland.k12.mi.us

Selected Resources

Bryk, A.S., & Schneider, B. (2003). Trust in schools: A core resource for school reform. Educational Leadership 60(6):40-45. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar03/vol60/num06/Trust-in-Schools@-A-Core-Resource-for-School-Reform.aspx.

The Colorado Trust (2008). Build trust, end bullying, improve learning: evaluation of The Colorado Trust’s bullying prevention initiative. Retrieved from Denver, CO: https://www.coloradotrust.org/sites/default/files/COTrust_FINALAPRVD_112408.pdf.

Louis, K.S. (2007). Trust and improvement in schools. Journal of Educational Change, 6(1), 1-24. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259754500_60_Louis_KS_2007_Trust_and_improvement_in_schools_Journal_of_Educational_Change_61_1-24.

Marcinek, A. (2014, October 22). Digital Citizenship: Developing a Culture of Trust and Transparency. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-citizenship-culture-trust-transparency-andrew-marcinek.

Tschannen-Moran, M. (2004). Trust matters: Leadership for successful schools. Francisco, CA:  Jossey-Bass.

The Need to Belong - 3-Minute Video with Transcript, Discussion Questions, and Selected References

Episode 2: The Need to Belong

YouTubeLink

Discussion Questions

1. How has your sense of belonging been disrupted by COVID-19? Your professional relationships? Your feeling of being a part of this school community?

2. How have the students’ sense of belonging been disrupted by COVID-19?

3. What will staff need to restore this sense of belonging?

4. What will students need to help them regain the sense of belonging? 

1st Frame:

Hello! I’m Julie McDaniel-Muldoon, Safety and Well-Being Consultant at Oakland Schools. I created the Supportive Strategies Series with 3-minute episodes of strategies I think might be helpful to you, especially during this extraordinary time. These short and sweet episodes are based on research and best practice. Episode 2: The Need to Belong. Let’s begin.

2nd Frame:

The most important function of the brain is determining our level of safety. When the brain perceives the system to be safe, the Limbic System, the social emotional part of the brain, then asks, “Am I loved? Do I belong?” this point the executive functioning part of the brain lights up. At this point, we are able to control impulses, can reason and learn, and make good judgments.

 3rd Frame:

As complex mammals, we thrive in safe and supportive communities. It is so much a part of who we are that we will seek and find safety in each other. In a spontaneous interaction, through facial expression, eye contact, and tone of voice, we can validate our safety and confirm that we are not alone. A sense of belonging generates confidence that life is good. 

4th Frame:

A sense of belonging prepares the brain for learning. A safe and supportive classroom community provides the environment needed to engage executive functioning. Students who feel like they belong– remember what is learned, develop new skills, have improved judgment. 

5th Frame:

It is more than learning, however. Our relationships, our strong social connections lead to greater well-being and happiness. Additionally, they increase our social awareness and thus our capacity for empathy and altruism.

6th Frame: 

The need to connect is even stronger in children and adolescents. When we meet these needs by helping students develop strong relationships, we are actually helping to build strong school communities. Studies show the relationship between strong school communities that prioritize social-emotional learning with increases in student achievement We can meet the need to belong in an online environment by connecting with students frequently and consistently, by validating their emotions, by providing reassurance, making student connection a regular assignment, assigning and modeling offline ways to connect.

Final Frame:

 All of this content is based on solid research and best practice. Please contact me for references, more resources, and suggested topics for future episodes at julie.mcdaniel@oakland.k12.mi.us

Selected Resources

Barshay, J. (2018). Two studies point to the power of teacher-student relationships to boost learning. The Hechinger Report. Retrieved from https://hechingerreport.org/two-studies-point-to-the-power-of-teacher-student-relationships-to-boost-learning/.

Dunlea, M. (2019, September 4). Every Student Matters: Cultivating Belonging in the Classroom. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/every-student-matters-cultivating-belonging-classroom.

Edutopia (Producer). (2019, January 14). The Power of Relationships in Schools [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/video/power-relationships-schools. 

Porges, S. W. (2017). The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative
Power of Feeling Safe. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.

Roffey, S. (2012). Developing Positive Relationships in Schools. Positive Relationships: Evidence Based Practice Across The World, 145-162. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278636575_Developing_Positive_Relationships_in_Schools.

Siegel, D. J. (2015). Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin.

The Effects of Childhood Bullying into Adulthood

When the Center for Disease Control named bullying an "Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE)" in 2017, it validated the 30-year effort examining the long-lasting effects of childhood bullying into adulthood. The research efforts have suggested these principles: bullying is prevalent, being a target of bullying has a multi-symptom, negative impact, and the impact of being a target is long-lasting. Professors Patricia McDougall and Tracy Vaillancourt reviewed the literature in order to determine how far the negative impact can reach and which effects have the deepest impact.

The researchers selected 17 prospective studies to review. Prospective studies take a population and look at effects of over a long period of time, and so these studies looked at the effects of painful childhood experiences, including bullying, into adulthood.  The following are some of the findings:

• Mental Health. McDougall and Vaillancourt found a "direct" pathway between childhood bullying and mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, that extend into early adulthood, with one study showing effects into mid life. The researchers also found "indirect" pathways, youth who had experienced bullying and who had described themselves as depressed or having low self-esteem were likely to be much more depressed in late adolescence and early adulthood.
• Peer Support. Children who have a strong network of friends are less likely to feel the long-lasting effects of bullying. For children who had few friends during the bullying but more friends later, the impact of the bullying was shorter lived. 
• Adult Support. When children were bullied and also reported high support from parents, they were less likely to report depression, behavior problems, and emotional problems later. The support of the teacher is critical, especially when children report low parental support. When children who are being bullied also report high levels of emotional support from teachers, the potential for emotional and behavioral problems is reduced later on.
• Self-Evaluation. When children perceive themselves as victims and report high levels of threat, they are likely to experience more bullying victimization and increasing depression into adolescence. Several studies have shown that poor self-worth in children who experience bullying leads to self-blaming that can last into adulthood, opening the door to adult victimization.

The researchers concluded that "the strongest candidate" to interrupt the pathway between childhood bullying and long-lasting effects into adulthood was a strong support network of peers and adults. Parental support may have a bigger impact on younger children, and older children need a strong network of peers and a trusted teacher at school. They also suggest adults can buffer the effects of bullying by helping children and adolescents build coping skills and by supporting them in developing positive self-worth and healthy peer relationships. 

Bullying is not a rite of passage and does not have to be a life sentence. Parents and teachers have the ability to stop an undesirable pathway for children and adolescence.

"Every child deserves a champion 

- an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection 

and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be." 

~Rita Pierson

Building Resilience

Our turbulent world offers challenging situations for all of us, most especially for our children. These complex life events, from divorce and death to violence and poverty, are negatively affecting our social and emotional health. In schools, we can counteract these effects by helping students develop strong coping and problem-solving skills. In doing so, we can reduce the negative effects of the real life issues that our children face.

Compelling research focusing on both adults and children shows that when we strengthen our emotional awareness and deepen our social skills, we can reduce anxiety and depression. When anxiety and depression are reduced, we are more effective at work, in school, and in life.  

As we build our social and emotional skills and strategies, we are able to persevere, to problem-solve, and to negotiate. We build resilience.

We are resilient when we

• understand our own emotions, and with this understanding, we can control them.
• have impulse control, meaning that we first think before we act.
• are realistically optimistic, and we know that things will get better.
• are flexible in thinking, and we see options and alternatives when faced with problems.
• believe in our ability to make it through challenging situations.
• have empathy for others who are handling their own life difficulties.
• know when and how to reach out for help.

Building resilience should be a priority for all involved in educational endeavors. Resilient schools have more effective teachers and administrators. Resilient students are happier, more hopeful, and open to learning. By building resilience, we increase our ability to cope with and to thrive in the complex lives we are living, both in and out of school.