Confronting the Crisis of Engagement: Creating Focus and Resilience for Students, Staff, and Communities
About this ebook
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:
- Connections — feeling known, valued, and tethered to others
- Conditions — being able to learn in a stable environment in which expectations are high
- Challenge — engaging in an endeavor knowing your "high jumps" in terms of intellectual and creative risks will be supported
- Control — the privilege of learning with a balance between ownership and support
- 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.
About the author
Dr. Douglas Reeves is the author of more than 40 books and more than 100 articles on leadership and education. He has twice been named to the Harvard University Distinguished Authors Series and was named the Brock International Laureate for his contributions to education. His career of work in professional learning led to the Contribution to the Field Award from the US National Staff Development Council, now Learning Forward. He was also named the William Walker Scholar by the Australian Council of Educational Leaders. His recent books include Deep Change Leadership, Achieving Equity and Excellence, From Leading to Succeeding, and Fearless Schools. Doug is the founder of Creative Leadership Solutions, with the mission to improve educational opportunities for students throughout the world using creative solutions for leadership, policy, teaching, and learning. Through this he has worked across more than 40 countries.
Nancy Frey is a Professor in Educational Leadership at San Diego State and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. She is a credentialed special educator, reading specialist, and administrator in California. She is a member of the International Literacy Association’s Literacy Research Panel. Her published titles include 50 Strategies for Activating Your PLC+, The Illustrated Guide to Visible Learning, Welcome to Teaching Multilingual Learners, Teaching Foundational Skills to Adolescent Readers, and RIGOR Unveiled: A Video-Enhanced Flipbook to Promote Teacher Expertise in Relationship Building, Instruction, Goals, Organization, and Relevance.
Douglas Fisher is professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Doug was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. He is a credentialed English teacher and administrator in California. In 2022, he was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame by the Literacy Research Association. He has published numerous articles on reading and literacy, differentiated instruction, and curriculum design, as well as books such as The Teacher Clarity Playbook 2/e, Your Introduction to PLC+, The Illustrated Guide to Teacher Credibility, Instructional Strategies that Move Learning Forward: 30 Tools that Support Gradual Release of Responsibility, and Welcome to Teaching!
