Performance character

Courage in the classroom can mean having difficult conversations with parents, students, and colleagues — and even school leaders. The degree to which these conversations require courage will depend on the context and existing relationships, which is why creating inclusive, collaborative settings can be important for reducing the sense of risk involved. Courage can also mean modeling courageous action for students by drawing on our assets of humility and honesty to acknowledge what we don’t know and admit when we are wrong or when our ideas don’t work out. It takes both courage and resilience to move out of our comfort zone as teachers to try new pedagogical approaches and then be willing to iterate and try again based on how things go. And finally, supporting students as they develop their own courage can come through teaching social-emotional skills such as standing up to bullying or advocating for oneself, as well as learning experiences that center moral courage and action as related to historical or current events.

In our education systems, it takes courage to question long-standing structures and conventions that do not serve all students equitably and push for change. Looking inward and examining our processes and behaviors and pushing back against the way things have always been done is not an easy task, nor are we guaranteed success. Yet Principled Innovation requires us to take action in line with our values, drawing on our courage as well as many other character assets as we work to find solutions to systemic challenges. Systems leaders need to have courage and humility to acknowledge the things that are not going well and show their teams that they are willing to take risks. They can be courageous by being open to change, for instance by setting up open channels of communication with their many constituents and going on listening tours or holding focus groups. And they can show their willingness to change their systems by identifying “small wins” that can help build allies and create momentum toward innovation and systems improvement.