Building the WE to Engage

Students, Families and Communities

Brittany R. Pope, MSOhioGuidestone | Coordinator of Applied Clinical Sciences

2018 National Family & Community Engagement Conference

Friday July 13, 2018 9:15-10:30am Session

About Today

Today’s Themes:

• Relationship Building & Trust

• Promote Inclusion, Ensure Equity and Create

• Parent Leadership, Advocacy and Community

Today’s Goal: Demonstrate ways to better engage others using approachable and accessible terminology and concepts from neuroscience and psychology.

Today’s Learning Objectives:

• Identify interpersonal behaviors that either encourage or discourage engagement.

• Comprehend the connection of basic brain science, such as emotions and attachment, to interpersonal relationships.

• List at least 3 free tactics or behaviors to attempt to build trust within their personal and, or professional communities.

• Summarize theories and research that demonstrates the power of building relationships and trust on ones ability to connect, understand, empathize and engage others.

(in laymen’s terms)

About Today

In Short:

• We’re going to talk about BRAINS, Humans, Others & Ourselves

• I’m going to ask you to participate (It’s an Engagement Conference, so…)

• Pro: I won’t read the PowerPoint word-for-word

• Con: I plead the 5th (I’m biased, Ok?! Hint- we’re going to touch on biases!)

• We’re going to talk honestly about

• “Us vs Them”

• Students & Families we do/do NOT [fill in the blank]

• What do we really need to better engage others?

Who is Who?

Us versus Them

US

• Correct, Wise, Moral, Worthy,

Noble, Loyal

• Us Shortcomings:

Circumstance

• Them Shortcomings:

Inherent Qualities

THEM

• Assess others on a Warmth &

Competent Scale

• Blocks ability to be Attuned and

Empathetic

Us versus Them:

What the Brain has to Say

• Brain naturally drives judgements base on difference

• Categorization and Discrimination of all things

• Especially Others, or “THEM”

• Brain gets quicker at making differences:

• Subconscious, even Implicit Biases

Response to Difference

Warmth & Competence

WA

RM

TH

COMPETENCE

Them:Low Warmth | Hi Competence

(definitely not “US”)

Them: Lo Warmth| Lo Competence

(definitely not “US”)

US: High Warmth| Hi Competence

US: Lo Warmth| Lo Competence Them: High Warmth| Lo Competence

The Brain and Engagement

• Social Engagement:

• Promotes positive social interactions

• Reduces psychological distance

• Promotes sense of safety between people

• Neuroception: neural detection of environmental risk

• Modulates behavior and physiological state to support adaptive behaviors in response

to safe, dangerous, life-threatening environments

Fire Alarms Block Engagement:

Meet the Amygdala

The Brain and Engagement:

“When It Falls Down”

&%$@

The Brain and Engagement:

Neuroception

• Detecting safety is inclusive of the detection of risk

• When Safety Detected: “Amygdala” Alarm dampens

• When Danger Detected –or- Neuroception Distorted: stress

response system activated and persists

• Limiting or Preventing Engagement

The Brain and Engagement:

Neuroception & Impact on Engagement

• 3 Basic Mindsets or “Ethics”

• Safety Ethic

• Imagination Ethic

• Engagement Ethic

POP QUIZ: Multiple ChoiceHow to Promote Student, Family & Community Engagement?

Response to Difference

Interoception, Connectedness & Empathy

• Interoception- “felt experience” from information from one’s body, internal stimuli

• Connectedness- ability to mutually regulate physiological and behavioral state

• Neurobiological mechanism to link social behavior to mental and physical health

• Empathy- Hard-wired in our brains

• “Mirror Neurons”

• Allows us to relieve one’s stress and to make one another happy

“Social networks that encompass a “we” perspective promote family and

community stakeholders and reduce violence and aggression…”

• Fight “Us versus Them” mentality with a “WE” perspective

• Safety Ethic can decrease when individuals feel they belong to a social network or community

that does not define itself as “Us versus Them”

• Corrects Neuroception

• Promotes Engagement because of perception of Safety & Community

“Systems that are well constructed with companionship care

lead to empathetic effectivity roots and communal autonomy”

Steps to Building the WE

• Build Relationships & Networks with Empathy

• Respect Individuation and Shared Values

• Unify People on Equal and Equitable Terms

• Resist “Us –v- Them” Definitions

• Stop Indifference

• Proactively and Purposefulyy Seek Creative ways to Build the We

Steps to Building the WE:

“Partnership Configuration”

• EMPOWER Others

• Equitable and Equal Partnerships

• Denounce Abuse & Violence (& Indifference)

• Enhance Human Morality via Empathy and Mutual Respect

Steps to Building the WE:

“Think, Reason, Question”

• RESIST Intuitions

• Fundamentally Flawed (“Warmth & Competence”)

• Based upon stories, truths

we’ve told ourselves

• Distract from Implicit Biases

that drive “Us versus Them”

“Take their perspective,

try to think what they think,

try to feel what they feel.

Take a deep breath,

and do it all again.”

Steps to Building the WE-

Promote & Support Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity

“The beneficial effects typically involve both

more knowledge about and more empathy

for the Thems.”

“Contact between a traditionally dominant group

and a subordinate minority [or group] usually

decreases prejudice more in the former;

the latter have high thresholds.”

Inclusion

“The workplace is a particularly effective

place for contact to do its salutary thing.

Decreased prejudice about the Thems [at

work] often generalizes to Thems at large,

and even sometimes to other types of

Thems.”

Building the We:

Rewire Your Brain

Building the We to Engage Students

• Warmth & Competence: How are you ranking your Students?

• Rewire Your Brain

• Change common perceptions held about children

• Consider various ways to engage students

• Especially the “Them” students

• Redesign your Classroom

Building the We to Engage Students

• Warmth & Competence: How are you ranking your Students’:

• Families?

• Neighborhoods/Communities?

• Rewire Your Brain

• How to overcome barriers?

• How to redefine your perspective of Families & Communities?

• Redesign your Approach

Awaken Natural Abilities to Engage:

Create a “Memory Lane”

• Build a Memory Lane

• All the Why’s that lead you to become an Educator and work with Youth and Families

• Empathy is based on what is within us

• When all else fails, put yourself in your Students & Families shoes

• How would you want to be treated?

• Self Compassion

Self Compassion Leads to Empathy and

Engagement of Others

Go & Engage!

Thank you!

Contact Information:

Brittany R. Pope, MS

OhioGuidestone 434 Eastland Drive Berea, OH 44017

Brittany.pope@ohioguidestone.org

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