Confronting the Crisis of Engagement

Creating Focus and Resilience for Students, Staff, and Communities

Stop apathy in its tracks with the 5 C’s of engagement

Disengagement, disenchantment, distress—the three “D’s” of many post-pandemic schools. If we are to find our way back from this brink, every student, teacher, and leader must relearn how to lean in. It’s time to focus, know one another, and stop chasing so many initiatives. It’s time to shake things up so learners want to participate.

From faculty meetings to student conferences, casual greetings to grading, you can learn to use practices that most powerfully reflect the Five C’s of Engagement:

1. Connections — feeling known, valued, and tethered to others
2. Conditions — being able to learn in a stable environment in which expectations are high
3. Challenge — engaging in an endeavor knowing your “high jumps” in terms of intellectual and creative risks will be supported
4. Control — the privilege of learning with a balance between ownership and support
5. Collaboration — deepening one’s knowledge and identity as a learner by being skillful at relationship-building

Our students are looking to us as the grownups in the room to model what it looks like to belong, believe, and balance high expectations with compassionate support. With Confronting the Crisis of Engagement in hand, you have the guide to make that happen.