Creating Safe Space for Brave Action: The Pre-work of Courageous District Leadership

Superintendents are being required to navigate, facilitate and at times engage in conversations, debates and decisions regarding sensitive issues like gender identity, systemic oppression in history and currently, race, etc. While we all have our personal views, understanding how to navigate these situations through doing your own learning, reflection and preparation is becoming a critically needed skill to balance personal and professional perspectives. In this session, participants will be introduced to the Journey to Liberation which can help them build knowledge and confidence to address crucial issues of our time including race and identity equity. Participants will learn about large and small group practices that provide them with a blend of context, content, and competencies around starting the conversations and use the restorative questions as a foundation for understanding and navigating the complexities of preparing yourself to create a safe space for brave action!

The audience will be engaging with one another and the presenter through several sharing and discussion prompts including: greatest hope and greatest fear, CAP Moments, Sharing stories and swapping of ideas. Each participants will also complete their own cloze activity worksheet in which they will outline the next steps they will be taking along with the commitments and accountability partners to help them be successful.

In this session, participants will

- be introduced to the Journey to Liberation to build knowledge and confidence to address issues like race and identity equity.

- learn about and receive an outline of 3-5 practices that provide them with a blend of context, content, and competencies to get started

- learn how to use the restorative questions as a tool for seeing different perspectives

The Journey to Liberation is comprised of several research based framework and strategies in a specific sequence to increase the effective implementation of systemic changes. Using the following research and evidence based strategies of racial, cultural and educational historical literacy, cultural proficiency framework tools, water of systems change framework, the 5 Pillars for Courageous Family Leadership and Implementation Science to weave together an effective and replicable journey to help everyone lead with equity at the forefront of their decision making.