As educators, our collective aim to prepare students to navigate a complex and polarized world, is more vital than ever. The fracturing of civil society across the nation and around the world underscores our duty to equip students with the skills they need to engage in respectful dialogue in order to promote equity, belonging and inclusivity. Recognizing this profound responsibility, this workshop empowers teachers and school leaders to advance civil discourse within their institutions. Formalizing a civil discourse statement fosters a collective commitment to the ideals it represents. It also encapsulates the essential work of schools and produces a roadmap that ultimately serves to ground programming across academics, advisories, co-curricular activities, athletics, and the arts._x000D_ _x000D_ This workshop invites participants to consider how they might lead their schools through the process of drafting a statement on civil discourse and provides suggestions for how to begin integrating it into academic and social programs. We will begin by exploring research by Cohen, Spencer, Brookfield, and Preskill, examining the crucial role of civil discourse education in safeguarding democracy, nurturing belonging, and promoting humanity. We'll share our school's journey in crafting a statement aligned with our mission to graduate students who “act knowledgeably, lead thoughtfully, share generously and contribute meaningfully.” Attendees will explore our methods for collecting and analyzing feedback from faculty in all three divisions, from administrators and senior leaders, members of the Board of Trustees and Parents Association, students, and staff members. They will examine how our collaborative process produced a statement that informs practices, policies and initiatives; shapes programming and instruction in academic classes and in social-emotional spaces; and further defines our identity, ethos and community interactions. We will demonstrate how we leveraged AI to synthesize large amounts of data to generate themes and patterns. Finally, we will offer practical examples of how schools can shift from drafting a statement to actualizing it in classrooms and in social-emotional learning spaces._x000D_ _x000D_ Through facilitated discussions and reflective exercises, participants will explore how to adapt the methods and frameworks to their own schools, drawing on their mission statements, visions and values. The workshop is designed to be adaptable, allowing participants to tailor the approach for specific divisions, departments, or a whole-school initiative. We welcome cohorts of cross-divisional school leaders and faculty seeking to partner with one another in pursuit of creating a statement on civil discourse.
