Implementation Webinars > Module 3
Equity, trust, and power
Key Points
These are reflective questions. They may not be all relevant to you at the current stage of SEL planning and implementation you’re in, but it is helpful to go through them on your own. For ones that are currently relevant to you, reflect on them on your own dedicate time to discuss them with your SEL team. Flag questions you will reflect on and discuss as you move forward.Implementation is a social process. Because of this, we want to make sure that the relationships we build have a foundation of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and that all our implementation processes have equity embedded into them.
There are some general reflective questions related to equity you can ask yourself at any step in implementation.
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The first set of questions asks you to be critical of the evidence around the thing you want to implement (i.e., social-emotional learning).
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The second set of reflective questions relates to people, and particularly the diversity and inclusion of people throughout implementation processes.
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The final set of reflective questions relate to any decision point in your implementation process.
Consider who benefits and who loses by making that decision.
If someone experiences a loss, what is the magnitude of that loss and does it outweigh the magnitude of the benefit that might be experience by another party?
Action: These are reflective questions. They may not be all relevant to you at the current stage of SEL planning and implementation you’re in, but it is helpful to go through them on your own. For ones that are currently relevant to you, reflect on them on your own dedicate time to discuss them with your SEL team. Flag questions you will reflect on and discuss as you move forward.
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All implementation work is predicated on having relationships with other people. Spending the time thinking about cultivating trust and navigating power can set you up to have more transformative, equitable relationships and to move work forward.
There are three key elements that have to be in place for us to trust other people and for other people to trust us:
Competence – i.e., in a relationship, we believe in the other person’s skills and/or abilities and they believe in ours
Connection – i.e., in a relationship, we feel we have shared values and things that link us together
Authenticity – i.e., in a relationship, we think the other person is being transparent about who they are and why they’re at the table, and they think the same of us
There are four types of power:
Power over: your dominance over others and their dominance over you
Power with: lending each other power when collaborating to move work forward
Power to: lending power to others to move work forward
Power within: this is the power we have within ourselves based on the unique experiences and contributions we bring to the table. When you can identify your own power within and others’ power within, it can help you think differently about equity in relation to power.
Action: Think about your relationships with the other people you are working toward SEL implementation with and reflect on the level of trust and power and in these relationships. What is contributing to the current level of trust and power and how can you change these dynamics?
Videos
Foundational questions about equity in implementation
Here, we describe the importance of considering equity in SEL implementation and the some foundational reflection questions you can ask at every step of implementation.
The role of trust and power in implementation
In this video, we describe ways to think about trust and power when you are embarking on SEL implementation work.
Tools & Resources
Activity Guide
Reflecting on equity, power and trust: foundational questions to guide discussion
The purpose of this activity is to provide you with a set of guiding questions to help you reflect on equity, power, and trust as they relate to your SEL implementation roles and activities.