Educating with Empathy

With the global pandemic finally over, Prince Edward Island, like the rest of the world, is wondering what the “new normal” will look like. 

Empathy had been at the heart of all the decisions PEI made for its education system during the pandemic, and we were fortunate to have leadership, both at the department and provincial government levels, who supported this approach. PEI made significant changes to programming during and after the various lockdowns – curriculum was revised to highlight essential outcomes, pacing guides were adjusted, and physical and mental wellbeing were emphasized and supported. Once back in school, teachers were encouraged to focus on reconnecting with their students and with each other, because we know that student achievement is directly connected to a sense of belonging in our schools and because strong relationships with adults in the building enhance academic success. We were proud of how we navigated pandemic education, and proud of the work teachers and school leaders had done. Prior to 2020, every English language school in our province was required to have school goals, primarily in numeracy and literacy, along with an additional goal focused on student wellbeing. The goals were set based on expected percentage improvement, using provincial assessment results to measure progress. The pandemic brought a pause to our school goals work, and the 2021-22 school year became a “transitional” year where there was an intentional focus on social emotional learning (SEL), again leaning into empathy for students, staff and families in the wake of the significant societal impacts brought about by the global pandemic. So, how could we continue to promote high quality education and academic excellence while robustly supporting the social and emotional needs of students and teachers? 

Fast forward to spring 2021, and as we prepare for the start of a new academic year that was not expected to be plagued with school closures and extended isolation periods, would we just get back to business as usual? A colleague and I had recently participated in an online workshop from Linda Darling Hammond, and her call to action really resonated:

“I would encourage educators and policymakers to use this moment of deep disruption to reinvent the way we do school.”  

It seemed like many jurisdictions were keen on a back to basics approach – more numeracy and literacy instruction, “filling the learning gaps” created by COVID-19. But to us, something felt off about this. The world was trying to right itself, and we were all still reeling from the effects of a global pandemic – could we really just go back to normal – even double down on academics? But were we ready, as Linda Darling Hammond suggests, to use this moment to reinvent how we did things? 

As we explored the ideas Hammond presented, it became clear to us, both from her research, and in our own work with principals and teachers, that SEL was the place we needed to focus. We had begun to work with our school leaders and teachers on creating a culturally competent education system in the 2020-21 school year, and this work, as well, fit under the broader umbrella of SEL. We embraced Hammond’s supposition that “all learning is about connection,” including academic as well as social and emotional and started in earnest to plan for a new school goals cycle, one that would focus entirely on SEL. We hired an SEL consultant and started a deep dive into jurisdictional scanning, CASEL competencies, systems and frameworks to see what might work for our education system.  

Unfortunately, we found that nobody else seemed to be doing what we were trying to do. This created unexpected challenges for our systemic planning and resulted in lots of white-board problem-solving sessions as we tried to figure out a way forward!  But even though this work was, at times, stressful, we knew it was where we needed to be. We had to embrace the fact that it would be messy, and definitely not linear. We had to put ourselves in a vulnerable position and share our uncertainty around the process with our school leaders to move this forward.

Leaning on CASEL research, in 2022-23, we continued to support principals in SEL leadership while working to develop a process by which schools could identify, track and measure their SEL goals the following year, when we launched the three-year cycle. At each principal meeting, we provided further training around social emotional learning, and we listened to what schools had already been doing as a means of reconnecting and building relationships post-COVID. In recording their ideas, we were able to start creating a list of example actions and strategies schools might choose to focus on in their school goals work.  Despite this, it became clear by April of 2023 that we needed to slow down – if we launched on schedule in September, this work may not have the impact we hoped for, and worse yet, it may just become a box-checking exercise. With the support of our senior leadership, we delayed the launch of our three-year cycle by a year with the intention of taking the time, as research suggested, to work on SEL with the adults in our system, while simultaneously working with principals to create overarching goals, and a reporting process. Once again, this decision placed us in a position of vulnerability. It takes a great deal of courage to stand up in front of your school leaders and say we are not ready to move forward with this work. 

In the summer of 2023, I attended the CASSA Conference in Victoria, BC, and it was here that I was introduced to The Third Path and Dr. David Tranter’s work. This notion of using a relationship-based approach to integrate the paths of wellbeing and academic achievement seemed to reflect what we were exploring. There was also a strong thread of “work with the adults first” throughout the book, which aligned with the reasons we delayed the implementation of our school goals. This “third path” felt like it could be the anchor we had been missing. 

In the fall of 2023, we purchased copies of The Third Path for our school and system leaders, and engaged Dr. David Tranter, the lead author, to come to PEI and work with us. We asked all our schools to identify two staff members who were potential leaders in the area of social emotional learning and school goals, and we had Dr. Tranter work with them, as well as our school principals and our Department English Programs leaders. Dr. Tranter introduced us to the eight conditions of a healthy education system, and encouraged us to stay the course, albeit messy and uncertain. As educators and educational leaders, we want to solve problems, provide answers, and generate hard data. It is challenging to allow ourselves the freedom to experiment, possibly fail, and then try other things, but that is exactly what Dr. Tranter’s message was:

“We need to allow educators freer rein to experiment with their own solutions, make more mistakes, recognize what is working and what is not, and modify their efforts accordingly.” 

This began our work in earnest and validated our “messy” process. Working with Dr. Tranter confirmed that we were on the right track, and that a “playful approach” to this work was not only ok, but in fact, encouraged.  

It was so important that wellbeing initiatives from the Ministry, the school board, and school leaders were aligned and shared the same language. Our province’s size gives us the ability to connect in ways that may not be feasible in larger jurisdictions. The Public Schools Branch (PSB) was receptive to a collaboration that resulted in Dr. Tranter working with their leadership team as well, ensuring that we were all on the same path forward. Shares Director of PSB, Tracy Beaulieu: 

 “Being a relational leader is essential for fostering trust, collaboration, and a positive work culture. As an organization, it is important to lean in and model the skill set that we would like our leaders to emanate. The Public Schools Branch welcomed the opportunity to engage in a book study using The Third Path to build a common understanding that aligns with what our schools are learning. We looked at the Conditions and focused on how it applies to leaders working with their staff. By prioritizing meaningful connections with employees, a relational leader creates an environment where individuals feel valued, heard, and motivated to contribute their best. The goal is that this leadership approach would not only enhance team morale and engagement but also improve communication, problem-solving, and overall organizational success.” 

Throughout the 2023-24 school year, alongside principals and SEL champions, we developed exemplars and sample actions and strategies that would align with the overarching goal of improving student wellbeing by incorporating SEL into classroom environments, school-wide climate and culture, and academic instruction. We also worked with principals to develop a school goals report that would serve them and their staff, without being cumbersome to use. We started with a draft, and at each principal meeting, we brought the draft for feedback, took it away and incorporated the feedback, and brought it back again to the next meeting. What started as a simple Google doc became a spreadsheet with a template for each of the overarching goals, tabbed with surveys, planning guidance, drop down menus, all available in this one-stop shop. 

And the backdrop of every decision and every process and product was the knowledge that we did not want to add anything to the workload of teachers and administrators. It was incredibly important to us that this work did not become an additional task, that it lived within what our schools were already doing, and that it was embedded within academic instruction. We worked hard to make connections to what we knew was already happening in schools, and to link strategies and actions to instructional work our system had previously engaged with. For example, instead of asking teachers to explicitly teach SEL outcomes, we highlighted the places where SEL already exists within curriculum and focused on the use of instructional strategies that would inherently increase SEL competencies in teachers and students. We have continued system-wide learning for adults as part of our provincial professional learning days, while bringing this work to our students and our schools through the school goals process. We are also happy, this year, to have members of la Commission scolaire de langue française (our French Language School Board) learning more about how to incorporate these SEL instructional strategies into their own schools and classrooms.  

We are in year 1 of a three-year school goals cycle and we continue to learn alongside each other in this work that is so crucial to the wellbeing of our education staff and the success of our students. It feels both messy and brave at the same time, and we are okay with that.   

Cover image (supplied by author)