WHOLE-CHILD DESIGN

Cultivating Staff Relationships

Strong staff relationships may organically form (e.g., two grade-level teachers who work closely together may take the time to learn about each other and provide supports for each other, or one department may consistently celebrate the accomplishments of teammates), but there are not explicit, schoolwide efforts to cultivate meaningful relationships among all staff members.

As a result, there may be pockets of meaningful relationships among staff members, but there may also be some staff isolated without support networks, cliques, or the cultivation of relationships only in groups where they naturally happen (e.g., among school leaders, between co-teachers, with others in the same subject area, with other new staff, or with identity-alike staff).

Supporting Staff Trust and Belonging

Clear, co-created norms, policies and procedures that support positive staff interactions may not be established, modeled or consistently followed by staff in the school community (e.g., how to resolve conflicts, engage in critical conversations, request support, proactively negotiate deadlines, share responsibilities, share resources, or make apologies).

Alternatively, norms, policies and procedures may be developed in exclusionary ways and may conflict with culturally affirming and sustaining practices (e.g., staff dress codes ban cultural attire or reinforce one set of cultural norms over another). As a result, staff do not experience a consistent sense of trust and belonging (e.g., conflicts among staff members may happen frequently with little resolution, individuals may withdraw themselves from the larger school community, staff may not believe what others tell them, or they prefer not to collaborate).

Supporting Staff Well-Being

Staff are not supported to prioritize their collective, holistic health and well-being (e.g., mental health, life satisfaction, and social, emotional and cognitive well-being) as they work toward school goals.

Norms, policies and procedures often impede self-care and personal well-being (e.g., pressure to work when sick, frequent requests to stay late, unreasonable workloads, communication norms requiring evening and weekend responses, restrictive leave policies, and recognition systems that reward and reinforce unhealthy work habits). Or, efforts to support well-being may be reactive and perfunctory (e.g., creating a temporary wellness challenge after staff report feeling stressed).

As a result, the school may experience low reports of job satisfaction, high staff absentee rates, and low staff retention rates.

Facilitating Shared Efficacy via Staff Collaboration

Staff have inconsistent or ill-defined structures and expectations in place for collaboration, resulting in individualistic approaches to work (e.g., lesson planning in isolation, a lack of communication around student interventions, resistance to sharing work or ideas, and disinterest in learning from one another). When collaboration does exist, it is part of a forced accountability setting (e.g., collaborating only during meetings where you are required to collaborate).

With a lack of rich collaboration opportunities, staff may inconsistently implement new strategies connected to school goals or routinely switch back to familiar and comfortable strategies.

Cultivating Staff Relationships

Strong staff relationships organically form and there are some explicit, schoolwide efforts to cultivate meaningful relationships (e.g., there may be a process for welcoming new staff into the school environment, such as staff mentors and school tours), but those efforts can become deprioritized (e.g., because of perceived time constraints, competing initiatives, lack of interests, overly booked schedules, and lack of adult spaces in the building).

As a result, there may be times in the school year when staff are able to connect and get to know and support one another, and other times when they are working in isolation, disconnected from support networks, or actively discouraged from spending time on relationships for fear of loss of productivity.

Supporting Staff Trust and Belonging

Some clear norms, policies and procedures that support positive staff interactions are co-created (e.g., teachers decide how they want to collaborate on lesson plans, or staff may agree on what the communication norms should be when emailing or texting for support), but others are created without the involvement or input of the larger community.

Alternatively, individuals may be held accountable to the norms, policies and procedures for interaction in inequitable ways (e.g., some staff may be addressed by leadership when they have not met an expectation, whereas others might not). As a result, there may be patterns in terms of which staff do or do not experience a sense of trust and belonging (e.g., staff of color may report feeling less of a sense of belonging, or staff who are not part of the leadership team may feel less trust).

Supporting Staff Well-Being

Conditions in the school sometimes support the collective, holistic health and well-being of staff, but other times, school goals, wants and needs get in the way of prioritizing well-being.

Norms, policies and procedures sometimes facilitate self-care and personal well-being (e.g., adjusting schedules to support working parents in their own childcare, providing access to mindfulness or meditation opportunities, offering access to mental health providers, or scheduling adequate breaks during the workday). However, those practices may be abandoned due to a sense of urgency, lack of progress on prioritized schoolwide goals, or budget concerns. Or, the well-being of some staff is prioritized over the wellness of others.

As a result, some staff report their well-being is only supported when it is convenient.

Facilitating Shared Efficacy via Staff Collaboration

Some formal and informal structures and expectations are in place to encourage active collaboration among adults, resulting in some staff working together on shared goals, but not all staff experiencing effective collaboration (e.g., staff may feel comfortable collaborating with individuals on their formal teams, but uncomfortable collaborating across teams).

Staff report they sometimes feel they can reach out to others for support, resources, learning or collaborative problem-solving. However, at other times, individuals may be unresponsive, too busy or not receptive to feedback.