The time before school opens is always an intense month for principals as they think through a myriad of logistics for everything, from buses to school lunches to conveying a compelling vision of teaching and learning. In the opening of the 2020–21 school year, principals will face a new and different challenge—reuniting and inspiring their school communities in the wake of Covid-19. This will not only be about implementing new safety guidelines, but also about the hard, strategic work of adjusting curriculums and programs to accommodate all the educational issues raised by school closures. It will most importantly be about the deep, human work of establishing a climate of care, one in which school leaders care for returning teachers, and returning teachers, in turn, care for the children and families they work with, creating ripples of support across the school community.

Three key mindsets, informed by research from education, leadership, and positive psychology, can help with this work of caring for school communities: a strength-based approach, collective leadership, and kindness. All three of these mindsets will help principals avoid falling into the trap of deficit thinking, which could come with a singular focus on learning loss, and instead recognize that both teachers and children are returning to school with new strengths, and enormous learning.

A strength-based approach to teaching and learning focuses on what is working—what children and teachers can do. Leaders with this approach articulate for their community the ways in which they have been strong, and help to leverage those strengths to do the new work ahead of them. Principals can ask teachers to share how they took care of themselves during a challenging time, and how this experience enhanced their abilities to cope, to persist, to learn digital skills, and to teach—the best they could. 

These discussions with teachers are not just to honor the work they have done during challenging times, but also to help them recognize that the challenges they experienced have morphed into strengths and interests, which can apply to a new learning environment this fall.

In the same way that principals asked teachers to consider the strengths and interests they gained, they should encourage teachers to do the same for their children. While schools were closed, many children developed interests that range from cooking, to gardening (or digging!), to dancing like their favorite movie character. The child who helped to assemble a table and chairs while home, or the one who had the job of watering the family houseplant, or the one who navigated a complex video game, each learned something. Children are always developing and growing based on their experiences, especially when their realities change. Teachers can help to bring this forth by providing opportunities for children to share, extend, and reflect on how the learning they did at home made them stronger, and more capable of succeeding at what’s next.

A strength-based approach to teaching and learning focuses on what is working—what children and teachers can do. Leaders with this approach articulate for their community the ways in which they have been strong, and help to leverage those strengths to do the new work ahead of them. Principals can ask teachers to share how they took care of themselves during a challenging time, and how this experience enhanced their abilities to cope, to persist, to learn digital skills, and to teach—the best they could. These discussions with teachers are not just to honor the work they have done during challenging times, but also to help them recognize that the challenges they experienced have morphed into strengths and interests, which can apply to a new learning environment this fall.

In the same way that principals asked teachers to consider the strengths and interests they gained, they should encourage teachers to do the same for their children. While schools were closed, many children developed interests that range from cooking, to gardening (or digging!), to dancing like their favorite movie character. The child who helped to assemble a table and chairs while home, or the one who had the job of watering the family houseplant, or the one who navigated a complex video game, each learned something. Children are always developing and growing based on their experiences, especially when their realities change. Teachers can help to bring this forth by providing opportunities for children to share, extend, and reflect on how the learning they did at home made them stronger, and more capable of succeeding at what’s next.

Stanford psychology professor Jamil Zaki, in his recent book, The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, reminds us of how important kindness is as a perspective in organizations, such as schools, not just in the lives of individuals. He writes, “Organizations that emphasize kindness flourish ... We are not merely individuals fighting to empathize in a world of cruelty. We are also communities, families, companies, teams, towns, and nations that can build kindness into our culture, turning it into people’s first option (pp. 121–122).”

Principals can go about turning kindness into their first option by deeply listening and empathizing. Empathy as a process of listening to and really acknowledging, but not attempting to “solve” others’ pain and suffering, can be a hard stance for principals to adopt, as school leaders are often cast in the roles of “doers” and “solvers.”

Imagine if a teacher, who confides in a principal that he cannot concentrate on his class because he is still mourning the loss of a parent to COVID-19 while getting his own children comfortable with going to school again, was met by a principal who listened deeply to him and took the time to let a real conversation unfold without judgement. This teacher will likely be motivated to meet his challenges with confidence because he felt appreciated and supported, rather than told how to quickly “fix” everything.

With the key mindsets we have looked at—a strength-based approach, collective leadership, and kindness—a principal can establish a climate of care in their school community. Schools have often served as centers of community and unity, and the principal leading with care will be critical in the re-establishment of social relations. When principals can see, articulate, validate, and celebrate what children and teachers have learned at home, and then help them to translate these skills and strengths in their new learning environments, they send a message to their school community: When we feel good about what we’ve learned, how we’ve grown, and who supports us, we can do good, anywhere.

Zaki, Jamil. The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2019.

Join us this month for our summer webinar series Communities of Practice: Reopening Our Schools & Classroom Communities with Care!

Session No. 1

3 Key Mindsets to Establish a Caring School Climate:

School Leaders

Wednesday, July 8, 2020