An Institutional Anticipatory Set

When designing a lesson plan for a classroom, there is what is called the “anticipatory set.” This is the introduction of a lesson that calls attention to, even captures, children’s attention and invites them to focus on the lesson. Researching the term in the Cult of Pedagogy website, I was reminded that an anticipatory set can create an organizing framework for the ideas and information to follow. The anticipatory set often supports children’s connection-making too, extending the understanding and the application of abstract ideas. It might look like reviewing the agenda and intentions for the day or it might be turning off the lights in the room when the children enter, except for a few faux candles, to anticipate a lesson on how descriptive words can support a writer’s conveying of setting and subsequently, tone. We do the anticipatory set as parents too, previewing the day’s plans ahead at breakfast time, for example.

Finishing up week three of the 2022-2023 school year, I am aware of us all still finding our flow. There’s acclimation, adjustment, situating, and settling into this new school year for the children and for the adults. Adjusting to these transitions is a thing and forming and reforming social connections is a thing. When I think of the bridging that moves us from summer to fall, past to present, I consider what Westland’s anticipatory set to the school year is. It dawned on me that the week my colleagues and I spend together ahead of the school year in meetings and in preparation serves as our anticipatory set. This time, which we call “Intro Week,” supports us to support children’s growth. It sets us up to thrive. This past August’s anticipatory set helped us prepare ourselves for the school year ahead. The week also provided us ongoing connections, extending our understanding on teaching and learning, and how to effectively be in community together, as feeling and thinking human beings.

Early in my career at a public school where I taught, the intro week was tackily coined “Teacher Torture” by some grumpy teachers. The vice principals used to start a faculty meeting occasionally by saying, “Everyone turn your chairs around, those of you who sat in the back, are now at the front.” While this was a funny move, it reinforced this notion that teachers just want to teach and “do their thing” – teach kids. That a space for adult learning was basically a bother. Intro Week at this former school was overwhelmingly regarded as a waste of time.

At Westland I am thankful that there is a given and natural parallel process of adult learning alongside children learning. We adults have the gift, and the responsibility, to follow our curiosity, to ask questions, to research, to read, to analyze, to celebrate mistakes, to think of our connection to the group, to envision, to create, and to reflect – and to engage in that cycle again and again. We are invited to live out Westland’s mission as learners. At this past August’s Intro Week, we welcomed back VISIONS, Inc., a consulting firm committed to supporting nonprofits and corporations to grow their equity and inclusion practices. Westland once again worked with Senior Consultants Terry Berman and Jim Turner, who have worked with Westland for over 7 years, predating my tenure at Westland.

During this past Intro Week all staff participated in a personalized VISIONS workshop for three full mornings. The content covered was intellectually stimulating, complex, and comprehensive as Westland continues on its journey of improving our equitable systems. When working with VISIONS, a recognition of the unique perspectives, lived experiences, and beliefs of all are heightened. It’s powerful.

To watch Jim and Terry facilitate is like watching Tony Hawk skate or watch Serena Williams pinpoint her serve. At one point, as they navigated the group, I thought of Yo-Yo Ma playing Bach’s “The Unaccompanied Cello Suite No.1 in G Major,” I kid you not. Terry and Jim are wise. They are expert facilitators: supportive and challenging, steady and fun, accepting and probing, familiar and always expanding in their own practice and understandings. They both provide information and solicit the knowledge of the group. They are playful and play off each other too, modeling to us the notion that when we are at our best, we can combine our strengths and personality traits to create a sum of our diverse strengths that exceeds what we could have ever added logically.

This exponential strength is what we endeavor to do in our own partnerships and committees, throughout Groups One to Six, and in our adult committees too. At one point during a transition, Terry pushed, “Okay, we need to move on.” Jim quietly chimed in, “We’re not moving on, we’re building on…” with a chuckle. They model transparent facilitation, sometimes disagreeing and publicly problem-solving in real time. Terry and Jim also embody the VISIONS facilitation model of cross-racial facilitation partners working with organizations, because in this model participants can see themselves in the complex discussions that emerge. This setup allows them to be “critical” friends, where they can compassionately nudge: “I’m going to push you a little on that.” (Which they did.) This model also allows for us as a staff to meet in intra-cultural groups and inter-cultural groups. We believe that staff of color must have the space to unpack their experiences and white-identifying colleagues must have the space to unpack theirs. Affinity groups (for staff, parents, and even children) help us come back together and be together even more effectively.

By focusing on our adult learning and processes ahead of the school year, we then can be entirely more present for children. We also set out to create space to heal as a community from the impact of COVID. Intro week becomes our oxygen mask we put on first.

As tempting as it is to share and reflect upon each goal we developed and activity we experienced, for the purposes of this piece, I’ll peel back the professional development curtain on two areas from our Intro Week to expose you to the content of our learning as well as our learning process. 

Multicultural Process of Change

We learned this framework together, and it speaks to the journey Westland is on towards equity and inclusion and how we create a sustained commitment to transforming relationships, systems, and outcomes connected to Westland’s mission and strategic plan. On the multicultural process of change journey, we ask ourselves how we value and honor differences at the personal, interpersonal, cultural, and institutional levels.

Terry and Jim lectured on the framework, then invited us into small and large-group dialogue to learn about and grapple with the pitfalls of monoculturalism, which is marked by a rejection of differences and a belief in the superiority of one dominant group. In a monocultural environment, it is the needs of the dominant group that are tended to most.

My colleagues and I explored how we can recognize, understand, and appreciate differences, and how we can co-create fair and just access to resources (time, money, positionality, etc.) in our school community. As a staff we explored how we develop a “liberatory consciousness” –  that my humanity and freedom are connected to your humanity and freedom.

We also reflected upon change and transition, and I was reminded of Lucy Sprague Mitchell's reflection that effective educators have the following quality: “Flexibility confronted with change and ability to relinquish patterns that no longer fit the present.” We strive to embody this flexibility during this dynamic, complicated time period. Also, in a multicultural environment, each of us has a story and each story is important because we bring these stories to our relationships and work – all in effort to support Westland’s mission and to support the children’s learning, growth, play, and storytelling.

Processing COVID and Community Building  

Goodness me, have we been through A LOT as a school community these last 30 months. I have heard community members reflect on feeling scared, sad, and spread thin. I have heard people expressing feelings of inadequateness, loss, and frustration due to the somber effects of isolation and the repercussions of necessary distancing. Ambiguity has abounded. Weekly there seems to be an Op-Ed about a mental health crisis regarding our children and teenagers in our country. We caretakers have been caring for others, not always able to prioritize essential self-care. There has not been sufficient time to mourn the losses we’ve experienced. We did our best, yes. We oftentimes showed up as our best selves and best community. It has been a lot though, and healing is still necessary, even though we are in motion, moving on, normalizing, and still seeking silver-linings through it all.

On the last day of our training with VISIONS, the Westland staff and I had the gift of meeting in half groups in order to create a more intimate space. We were asked to reflect on the impact of this COVID context, asked to simply listen (not converse or engage in conversation) to each member of our community as they shared to the group. The facilitators created a sacred space of storytelling and compassion. I learned about colleagues and what they’ve been through in new ways. Pain, pause, and beauty came through. We were given the hope that we are getting through and will get through this time period together.

Inspired by the focus on community, we also planned an evening staff community builder to intentionally and explicitly reconnect in community, in one way that Westland does particularly well: preparing and eating food together. The experience was bonding and brought us together in the spirit of community and cooperation.

It was Rasheda who envisioned and designed an epic dinner that would converge at my home. The full staff began by initially splitting ourselves up into 6 committees: appetizers, ambiance, sides, plant-based main course, open main course, and dessert. With 3 hours to plan, budget, shop, and prepare the meal, the atmosphere took on a fun, Top-Chef-meets-Amazing-Race-esque playful quality. Committees got to it.

As we understand it quite often at Westland, process is where it’s at. Taking over the Westland kitchen and that of several of my neighbors, we jammed out to loud and good music, chopped, stirred, sauteed, asked for support, offered support, grilled, baked, and even called home across the country for family recipes. We put together a bang-up meal that embodied celebration and invited us to be present in the joyful anticipation of a new school year. When we settled down to enjoy “the end product,” there were games, there was gorgeousness, and there was yumminess. There was togetherness marked by optimism and hope. Combined with the thoughtful learning of the week, the evening was the just-right departure point for our school year together.

With VISIONS’ support, my colleagues and I got to envision and anticipate the growth and connection to come. We got to experience the stuff of community: the joy, the “trying on,” the beginnings, the reflecting, the re-learning, the peaceful moments of clarity, and - of course - the breaking of bread. It had us naturally anticipating the children and parents’ return to campus and the growth and connection to come for us all. We are learners, all of us. And we are community members, all of us, committed to progressive education, equity, and each other.

When I revisit the original definition of the anticipatory set, I am reminded that it often supports learners’ connection-making, extending the understanding and the application of abstract ideas. In this past Intro Week and in the coming weeks, when new events and learning opportunities arise and abound, I will be reminded of a Westland teacher who once distilled her teaching practice to the act of “helping children make meaning.”

That’s what we did this past Intro Week, we made meaning. The abstract became concrete. The healing became visceral. The learning was alive. The process and pedagogy was lifted. We were lifted. And now we’re off, lifting up the voices of children as they make meaning.