Creating Community
The Standards for Inclusive Schools is a groundbreaking roadmap for building inclusive schools. This blog post is focused on Community — the second domain within the Standards.
The Community Domain is grounded in this belief: Communities thrive when all students and educators who are a part of them feel valued. To feel valued and belong, students and educators must not only be able to access a space, but they must be supported within that space and able to move through it with dignity, agency, autonomy, and respect. Anti-ableist schools value the principle of interdependence, are concerned with the wellbeing of the collective, believe that all people matter, and believe everyone belongs. This means that there’s recognition that disability-based segregation and isolation cause harm at both individual and systems-wide levels.
At its core, this domain is focused on our interconnectedness — whether it’s balancing our respective needs or taking collective risks, in community. As educators, this idea shows up as needing help with things, such as technology, as well as working jointly with colleagues on lesson planning. When we guide students to understand the power of supporting one another, they can learn to use their strengths and recognize needs, in collaboration with others, a tool that can extend beyond the classroom into the community as a whole.
How this works:
Educators can create a list of things that might be individually dysregulating, matching and implementing tools or strategies to help with personal regulation.
Educators can provide students with choices about the things they want to engage in, weighing the pros and cons, and enabling students to fail forward.
Students can learn about conflicting access needs. They can make choices when provided with items that support their needs, while also allowing for the access of others.
Students can be guided to reflect on the actions they take, forging new understanding about mistakes and learning opportunities. They can use journals to record situations that have rendered various effects, noting how different actions might lead to unexpected outcomes.
Educators who are interested in honing in on this domain or exploring the Standards can learn more by visiting our Standards webpage.
About The Nora Project
The Nora Project is a nonprofit organization on a mission to promote disability inclusion by empowering educators and engaging students and communities. We provide school-wide professional learning for educators, and Disability Studies-informed curricula for students in preschool through high school. Our ultimate vision is a new standard in education where diversity is expected and valued in every classroom.