Creating Psychologically Safe Schools for All Students, Educators, and Families Through Collaborative Partnerships
On March 5th, NLU’s National College of Education hosted a professional development workshop called "Creating Psychologically Safe Schools for All Students, Educators, and Families Through Collaborative Partnerships." This was organized by Jennifer Engelland-Schultz, associate professor, Gloria McDaniel-Hall, assistant professor, and Katalin Pluymert, Director of Advanced Professional Programs. The workshop participants worked towards identifying evidence-based and culturally responsive practices to create psychologically safe schools. "Creating Psychologically Safe Schools for All Students, Educators, and Families Through Collaborative Partnerships" focused on the following key elements:
- Creating psychologically safe schools for all students, educators, and families is a collaborative process between students, families, schools, and communities.
- Research shows that psychologically safe schools are linked to a range of positive outcomes for students, families, and educators, especially for those who may be experiencing increased vulnerability.
- To create psychologically safe schools, we can use a school climate framework to coordinate and implement evidence-based and culturally responsive practices within a tiered system of support.
- Areas of focus include school engagement (cultural and linguistic competence, relationships, school participation), safety (emotional, physical, bullying, substance abuse, emergency readiness/management), and environment (physical, instructional, physical health, mental health, and discipline) (National center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments, 2022).
- The evaluation of psychological safety in schools requires the perspectives of all individuals, including students, educators, school leaders, families, and community members.
- School climate improvement is a continuous process that requires collaboration and partnerships.
- Creating psychologically safe, supportive, and culturally responsive schools can promote equitable outcomes for all students, educators, and families. We must all take action to make this a reality.
To bolster this conversation, Gloria and Jennifer also facilitated a webinar entitled "Creating Psychologically Safe Schools for Students, Families, and Educators." They spoke with Rosario Pesce, member of the NASP School Safety and Crisis Response Committee, and Megan Quaile, the Chief Growth Officer at Green Dot Public Schools about their expertise on the topic in a Zoom webinar format. To watch the video, click here.
