Preparing Educators to Create Environments of Safety and Belonging

Wednesday, February 1, 2023 | 12:00-1:30 P.M. ET

This installment in EdPrepLab’s Learning Café “Whole Child and Educator Preparation Design Principles” series focused on developing equitable educators who are able to create learning environments in which students feel a sense of safety and belonging.

A wide body of research grounded in the science of learning and development shows that students are more likely to experience meaningful learning and a sense of safety and belonging in environments that are consistently caring, attuned to relationships, inclusive, and culturally responsive. This enables students to take risks, explore, and develop their identities. By defining shared values, routines, and expectations, schools can help reduce students’ stress and support the physical, emotional, and psychological safety that enables learning. This includes practices that are restorative, healing-oriented, and culturally responsive.

Preparation programs can be designed to prepare educators with mindsets that foster these environments and support all students to feel safe and to learn. In such programs, candidates can develop approaches that foster social and emotional learning, cultural competence, and restorative practices. This includes developing an understanding of how to build partnerships with families, community members, and other educators while focusing on children’s learning needs. Programs can also prepare educators to understand how contextual realities impact the experiences of their students, their understanding of themselves, and their perceptions of social identities so that educators can negotiate school policies toward equitable ends.

Featured speakers shared insights from the book Reading, Writing, and Racism: Disrupting Whiteness in Teacher Education and in the Classroom, including possibilities for transforming how teachers understand and teach about race in their classrooms. They also discussed how preparation programs can prepare anti-racist teachers who are able to create environments where all students can learn and thrive.

Speakers:

• Tanya Maloney, Co-Director, Transformative Education Network; Associate Professor, Department of Teaching and Learning, Montclair State University
• Bree Picower, Co-Director, Transformative Education Network; Professor, Department of Teaching and Learning, Montclair State University

Fostering Safety and Belonging for Immigrant-Origin Youth

Friday, February 3, 2023 | 3:00-4:30 P.M. ET

This installment in EdPrepLab’s Learning Café “Whole Child and Educator Preparation Design Principles” series featured a deep discussion of how preparing equity-focused teachers is key to creating learning environments that are safe, culturally responsive, and foster a sense of belonging for all students, with a specific focus on immigrant-origin youth. Environments Filled with Safety and Belonging—as described in the report, Design Principles for Schools: Putting the Science of Learning and Development Into Action—will be discussed alongside research in the article Safety and Belonging in Immigrant-Serving Districts: Domains of Educator Practice in a Charged Political Landscape.

The article authors facilitated a discussion on the four specific domains of educator practice outlined in their research: signaling affirmation, building shared knowledge and capacity, finding and mobilizing resources, and creating space for conversation. Participants were encouraged to share best practices in these domains and to engage in generative discussions of educator preparation problems of practice related to developing and sustaining learning environments that foster safety and belonging for immigrant-origin youth in the context of educator preparation.

Speakers:

• Dafney Blanca Dabach, Associate Professor, University of Washington College of Education
• Rebecca Lowenhaupt, Associate Professor, Lynch School of Education, Boston College
• Jennifer Queenan, Graduate Student, CUNY Graduate Center
• Paulette Andrade, Graduate Student, Gonzalez, Boston College
• Edom Tesfa, Graduate Student, Harvard Graduate School of Education

For more information regarding Learning Cafés, please contact Beatrice Benavides.

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