Tackling Difficult Issues With Courageous Conversations

At Casco Bay High School in Portland, Maine, a school in the EL Education network, “Voice and Agency” is one of the core tenets upon which they base their instructional approach. One example of their commitment: When students feel there is something important that needs to be discussed—a current event, a schoolwide issue, or a social dilemma—there is a process in place to bring the topic to the forefront. Typically, students pitch their idea to the student council, and if it’s approved, they work with their teachers to develop talking points, guidelines, and curriculum around the subject matter. The result is a set of courageous conversations on difficult issues, 60-minute discussions led by trained student facilitators that are held across small group advisory sessions all on the same day—so everyone in the school participates. 

When 11th-grade students Kendall and Mirabel noticed offensive language based on sex and gender coming up in everyday conversations, they were moved to develop a courageous conversation about casual misogyny. In the wake of their powerful discussion, they shared some interventions and strategies that teens could use to call out microaggressions or interrupt when they hear a friend say something sexist, disrespectful, or derogatory. 

Casco Bay High cares deeply about amplifying student voice and truly engages teenagers in running their school community. The discussions are always closed out with some sort of outcome or action plan. According to former principal Derek Pierce, “It’s about voice and empowerment, so that students know that their perspective matters and that they can do work that will shift the world in ways that need to be shifted.” 

EL Education offers a list of sentence starters for courageous conversations on difficult issues that can be useful in developing lesson plans like these. You can also find more resources in the Edutopia article by EL Education teachers Anne Vilen and Katie Dulaney, “Hot-Button Topics, Civil Conversations.” 

The term courageous conversation was originated 30+ years ago by author Glenn E. Singleton to describe frank conversations around race. Singleton has since developed the idea into a full protocol and framework for deeper dialogue—his organization trains leaders in education, community organizing, government, and industry.