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Election Series

Independent schools need strategies, context, and tools to foster open and authentic dialogue around the cultural and political issues that threaten to divide our school communities. In September 2024, ISACS is offering Finding Common Ground in a Political Divide: a series of three webinars to help educators and school leaders navigate the challenging election season and beyond. Join us on Zoom to find common ground among parents, colleagues and students.

Times
3–4 p.m. CT / 4–5 p.m. ET on September 19, 23, and 24.

 

Webinars

Leadership in a Politically Charged Age

As social divisions grow starker in the United States and elsewhere, leaders in the field of education, including teachers and school administrators, find themselves in a quandary. Leaders are increasingly expected to take a stand on controversial issues, but they often feel ill-equipped to navigate high-stakes conversations about gender, race, religion, and politics. So, what's a leader in the field of education to do? In this webinar, Kellogg professor Kteily will help unpack the science behind why social conflict arises and how organizations, including schools, can avert or address it. All are encouraged to attend.

Speaker: Nour Kteily, PhD, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern

An Issue-Centered Approach to Classroom Discourse

This webinar will give participants the facilitation skills, structures, and resources to lead productive conversations about challenging political and social issues at school. Explore an issue-centered approach to engaging in discourse on current issues that focuses conversations on the merits of policies and solutions to challenges rather than partisanship and political personalities. Participants will be introduced to a framework for discourse centered on shared values and application to real-world headlines to set the stage for informed dialogue in their classrooms. Examples will focus on use with middle and upper school students but this values-based framework and can be applied in any challenging conversation. Adults and/or students.

Speaker: Sante Mastriana, Close Up Foundation

Establishing A Productive Discourse Community in the Classroom

This session will focus on advancing classroom culture around discourse which encourages meaningful engagement and productive dialogue between students. Build an understanding of the norms and facilitation techniques that encourage deliberative dialogue, the role of language and labels in fostering civil discourse, and ways to project openness to multiple perspectives. Using a set of real-world scenarios, learn how to respond when discourse breaks down including methods to alleviate tension, consider the impact on different student populations, and what actions they, as facilitators, can take in the future to avoid or better prepare for challenges. Examples will focus on use with middle and upper school students but this values-based framework and can be applied in any challenging conversation. Adults and/or students.

Speaker: Sante Mastriana, Close Up Foundation

Register Now!

Interested in registering?
Email programinfo@isacs.org

Recordings
Webinar recordings will be available through November 15, 2024.

Audience
All members of independent school communities.

Questions?
Email programinfo@isacs.org

Speakers

Nour Kteily, PhD

Nour Kteily, PhD is a professor of management and organizations at Kellogg, where he is co-director of the Dispute Resolution Research Center and co-founder of the Center for Enlightened Disagreement. His research on negotiation, conflict resolution, and intergroup relations has been published in leading psychology journals and won him such accolades as the SAGE Young Scholar award, the James Sidanius Early Career Award, and the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions. He is also an award-winning teacher.

Sante Mastriana

Sante Mastriana is the professional development manager for the Close Up Foundation. He holds a master’s degree from Hunter College. Mastriana has conducted professional development at schools and conferences in over a dozen states and brings his experiences as a teacher and a Close Up instructor to session design. His primary professional development goal is that every participant completes the session equipped with knowledge and materials to implement immediately in real-world settings.  His primary goal is to leave every participant equipped with the knowledge and materials to implement immediately in real-world settings.