Engage a Community: 3 Ways to Surface Stories that Matter and Catalyze Change
For many people, stories help them connect with others, learn from experiences, and heal through the insights gleaned from hearing the narratives. Thus, storytelling is also crucial to equity work because the stories build empathy and uncover lived experiences of those who may be unlike the listener. Stories can explore the lives of the most overlooked populations.
As you work to disrupt inequity in educational systems, lean into the power of stories to build momentum. To do so, engage school teams, students, and community members in deliberate and thoughtful reflection and bring forth motivational stories which best represent what matters most to the people.
By embracing a receptive, collaborative mindset, you can mature into a school transformation change agent who moves equitable practices forward. Here are three ways to surface stories that matter and catalyze change that engage your community with creativity and intention.
Photo of a light fixture made of two concentric circles, with one tilted up to face the other. | Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash.
“Inside-Outside Circle” affective processing activity
In this activity, you will have safely gathered participants in person in one physical space. Participants then form two circles facing each other so that everyone has a partner. Each partner gets a chance to answer the question. The inside circle rotates one person to the right after each prompt, and the cycle continues.
The questions to use for the activity are:
What is something that was hard about this year?
What is something that feels uncertain going forward?
What is something you are proud of from this year?
What is one thing you are excited about for next year?
While these are the questions that we suggest starting with, your team and community can develop more as they see fit. This can be an opportunity to learn more about what matters to the group!
Photo of various colored pieces of chalk on a blacktop asphalt ground and yellow chalk lines in an abstract shape. | Photo by Yunsik Noh on Unsplash.
“Chalk Talk” protocol
The purpose of the chalk talk protocol (originally developed by Hilton Smith and Foxfire Fund, adapted for the National School Reform Faculty by Marylyn Wentworth) is to facilitate “conversation” grounded in deep reflection as well as to engage in thoughtful discussion with other members of the group.
It is a silent activity where participants communicate by writing on a shared space, like a chalkboard or large poster paper, in response to reflection prompts (ideas for prompts). The emphasis for this exercise is that it be done in complete silence to encourage thoughtfulness, contemplation, and slowing down.
Participants can contribute their own unique ideas through words, visuals, and symbols. All responses are visible to everyone else. People can comment on other’s ideas by drawing a line from the originating idea to add their own.
Participants should write as they feel moved. It is not uncommon for there to be long periods of silence; it will be up to the facilitator to decide when the activity is over. Sometimes the community has connected so well that there will be a collective and natural agreement of conclusion!
Close-up photo of a cream-colored linen cinched bag with a white tag affixed. The tag reads “2024” on it. In the background is the branch of a house plant. | Photo by Isabela Kronemberger on Unsplash.
“By the Numbers” exercise
Each person makes a poster with the year at the top. Then they respond to a prompt for each numeral in the year. The theme of the prompts should be determined ahead of time by the facilitators to touch on the most salient values of the community. If those are unknown to you, this could be an opportunity to go broad and discover what answers participants provide.
Example prompts:
2 - Two things I’m proud of from this year
0 - Something I want to stop doing
2 - Two hopes for next year
4 - Four things I think we could try next year
Once everyone has completed their poster, the group does a gallery walk to see similarities and differences and discuss what they’ve observed.
Graphic with title "Key ingredients to help you go deeper with your reflection and surface stories that matter most to your community" at top and a storybook graphic in the center that has rainbow, star, and circle icons. Arrows point out from the storybook to the tips, as noted in post, and the Partners in School Innovation logo sits at bottom.
Key ingredients to go deeper with reflection and storytelling
Now you have multiple activities to engage your community in meaningful ways for storytelling. As you start uncovering stories that matter most, remember to
Carve out a dedicated time for reflection and discourse
Get clear on your purpose
Honor diverse perspectives
Practice deep listening
Involve those most impacted by inequity
Embrace failure as a path to learning
Make joy central!
Continue learning with these educator resources
Get the full “Stories that Catalyze Change” resource here. Find additional tools like it in our free-to-join Community where 575+ equity-focused leaders in education are sharing resources weekly.
Ready to dive even deeper? Enroll in our complimentary course “Using Stories to Drive Change”to learn how to craft stories that become powerful tools to showcase progress, spark change, and inspire action towards education reform.
