Facilitating Tough Conversations

• Learning for Justice: Let's Talk: Discussing Race, Racism, & Other Difficult Topics with Students

This short guide suggests a variety of quick strategies for preparing yourself for facilitating challenging conversations with students and for helping students persevere during these conversations. The guide also lists numerous resources for students and educators.

• Learning for Justice: Speak Up at School: How to Respond to Everyday Prejudice, Bias and Stereotypes

This guide offers a more comprehensive overview of how to prepare yourself for facilitating challenging conversations with students, preparing students for these conversations, and dealing with bias in the moment.

• Courageous Conversations About Race: The Courageous Conversations Compass

This image offers participants the opportunity to reflect on and share how they are engaging a difficult conversation. This opens up opportunities for empathy and understanding, as well as reflection on what individuals need to become more "centered."

• TIIE: Using Protocols for Equity

This blogpost, written by former VT school librarian Jeanie Phillips, discusses the benefits of using protocols when having discussions related to equity and provides numerous resources to support this practice.

• National Writing Project: Dangerous Discussions: Voice and Power in My Classroom

In this article, Ursula Wolfe-Rocca shares an example of a sensitive conversation gone wrong, lessons learned from that experience, and how she now better facilitates difficult conversations in her high school classroom.