The Power of Collaborative Conversations

Part 1 of the Collective Care, Wellbeing, and Healing for Educators and Caregivers series

Learn why conversation and community are so important for educators, parents, and caregivers of children

The Case for the Collective

I didn’t read any parenting books while I was pregnant with my daughter. I was too busy racing to finish my dissertation and wrap up my doctoral program before she arrived.

Once she was born, I did read the parenting books-and blogs-usually in a state of panic or desperation looking for miracles and answers. Were they helpful? With a few exceptions, not really. Burying my sleep-deprived self in the stack of books I had inherited from well-meaning other moms or in the search results of my late-night panic googles (thank you to Emily Oster for coining a term for this) did more harm than good. The more I read about what I should be doing to make my kid a good sleeper, a good eater, a good human, the more anxious I felt. I should have just been taking a nap instead.

What did I find helpful? Talking to other parents. This realization first hit me when I connected with a mom I met at the ridiculous baby aerobics class I signed up for to give myself a reason to leave the house. Then I started chatting with a friend who had a baby two months earlier than me who had an equally unhealthy obsession with milestones. And I spent a lot of time seeking out parenting communities online in the delightful rabbit hole that is Reddit. Amidst post-partum anxiety, these conversations saved me. By articulating my own wonderings, experiences, and lessons learned to others and hearing their perspectives, I was able to make sense of this new identity called ‘mom’ in a way that none of the parenting experts I read could help me do. Dialogue and community is how I survived the first year, not consultations with experts and gurus.

What’s interesting is that this realization tied back perfectly with the findings of my doctoral research (which I did manage to wrap up just in time to give birth). In studying how educators develop knowledge and skills for engaging in trauma-informed and healing-centered practices, I learned that we can and should do more to tap into the intuitive wisdom and experiential expertise of educators, especially those working in classrooms directly with students. Research indicates that we should prioritize collective and ongoing conversation-based professional development (PD), as opposed to the top-down PD models where experts are brought in for 1-day workshops or hour-long seminars to disseminate information and introduce new practices or strategies. To support this shift, I developed and piloted a resource for educator-led PD called Collaborative Conversations for Collective Wellbeing (I love a good alliteration), which is intended to help educators facilitate learning about trauma and healing in community with one another.

How to Harness the Power of Collaborative Conversations

There’s a reason folks say "it takes a village" to raise a child. Like me, many people live far from their family, so our default villages aren't available. Instead, we have to find it or create it for ourselves. The same is true for educating young people. Even the most impactful and effective teachers need to lean on and learn from others to continue strengthening their practices while avoiding burnout.

So how can we harness the power of collaborative conversations in our own spheres as educators, parents, or caregivers? Here are a few tips:

1. Seek out opportunities for collaboration: Attend conferences, join learning communities, and participate in online conversations to connect with other educators or parents who share your interests and passions. You can start by joining the Knowledge Exchange Network community!

2. Be an active participant: Engage in discussions, ask questions, and share your own ideas and experiences. Passively consuming information has its place, but remember, true collaboration is a two-way street.

3. Embrace diverse perspectives: Be open to different viewpoints and be willing to challenge your own thinking. It is through the clash of ideas that true growth and innovation occur. In fact, a new book explores how to go from conflict to collaboration even when two sides disagree on major issues.

4. Reflect and apply: Take the insights and knowledge gained from collaborative conversations and apply them. Continuously reflect on your experiences and make adjustments as needed.

5. Take what you need and leave the rest: No philosophy or approach is all-or-nothing. You are allowed to experiment, pick and choose, or change your mind about the strategies you use to teach and care for young people.

Collaborative conversations are a powerful tool for both professional and personal growth. By actively listening, sharing ideas, and embracing collaboration, we can create a community of people who are dedicated to making a positive impact on the lives of children. I hope you'll join us at the Knowledge Exchange Network to continue this work.

As promised in my welcome post, my goal is for this blog to be digestible and actionable. So in that spirit, here are some possible to-dos for you after reading this post:

1. Join us. Follow Knowledge Exchange Network on social media, subscribe to this blog at the bottom of this page, or add a comment to engage with others.

2. Join other online communities. Some of my favorite ones as an educator are Cult of Pedagogy and Google for Education. As a parent, I like ParentData and Tinyhood. There are also many Facebook groups and other social media profiles worth following based on special interests or specific regions. Drop some of your favorites in the comments.

3. Go get my Collaborative Conversations for Collective Wellbeing resource from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. The content is designed to support educators in developing awareness of trauma and healing, but the structure of the conversation sessions can be replicated for any content or topic.

That's all for now. Check back soon for the next post in this series!