Shelby Clark

From Discord to Discourse: Embracing Differences in Group Conversations

By Shelby Clark

Throughout The Good Project’s lesson plans, we encourage teachers to use groups to engage students in discussion—and for good reason. Research shows (link here) that group discussions engage students in learning, and we’ve heard time and time again that students prefer learning this way.

Sometimes when we engage in discussions with others, it can be easy to come to an agreement. With peers, maybe we all agree that we liked the new Barbie movie better than Oppenheimer. With family, maybe we can agree that Grandma’s apple pie is better than her pumpkin. In a classroom, maybe we can all agree that, in fact, we’d really rather not be stuck on that island in Lord of the Flies.

However, more often than not, we disagree with one another. Oftentimes our values, beliefs, and attitudes come into tension, and we’re not always sure how to have a productive conversation with one another—or whether we even want to have a conversation at all. As our world has become even more global, and we’re able to reach out to people beyond the confines of our homes or classrooms, these tensions can become even more prominent in our global discussions on Instagram, Reddit boards, TikTok comments, Zoom webinars, and more.  

What have we learned about important elements of discussion from research on communication and civil discourse? While we certainly cannot cover the wide gamut of research on civil discourse here, we’ve attempted to pull together some of the key take-aways for you to consider.

(1) Be mindful of your emotions. People who are entering into a conversation with people who may disagree with them should be prepared for uncomfortable or disagreeable emotions to arise; such a discussion often asks individuals to question their beliefs, values, or even identities. In such discussions, you should be aware of what types of emotions this type of potentially threatening conversation might raise for you. Consider using mindfulness practices to label, take care of, and accept your emotions. Don’t allow your emotions to guide you towards snap judgments, biases, and unwarranted criticisms. Instead, remind yourself of your own values and what is meaningful in your life in order to help yourself “cool down” potential defensiveness. 

Check out the following for more information: 

(2) Check your “meta-perceptions” and biases at the door. “Meta-perceptions” refer to how we think the other side thinks about us. Research indicates that most people think they are perceived more negatively by the “other side” than they actually are. For example, one study led by Samantha Moore-Berg found that both Democrats and Republicans overestimate how negatively the other party feels about their own group. Consider looking at the “Dignity Index” to think about how you’re thinking about the “other side.” Do you want to fully engage with them? Or do you see them as promoting evil? Similarly, civil discourse research encourages us to engage curiously with the “other side”—for example, rather than assume your friend ditched your movie plans because they dislike you, ask them out of curiosity what happened. 

Check out the following for more information: 

(3) Establish mutual respect and common ground. A key element of civil discourse is showing common respect amongst the parties. One suggestion to achieve respect includes trying out the “garden salad” effect—effectively trying to imagine a person’s vegetable preference (broccoli or carrots?). You could try this with any food or preference (Vanilla or chocolate? Dogs or cats?). Focusing on these individual elements helps us to see our “opposition” as individual people rather than as “the other side.” Another key tactic for building respect is focusing on stories over reasons (e.g., “How did you come to see the issue this way?”) and sharing personal experiences. As a group, learning about one another and fostering a sense of common understanding and respect are invaluable. Stories, and, moreover, personal stories, allow members to be vulnerable with one another and to begin building empathy and perspective-taking abilities. Reminders of shared common ground are not only an important step in establishing respect, but also help to keep the conversation civil when parties disagree (e.g., “We might disagree about politics, but how ‘bout them [insert sport team name here]!”).

Check out the following for more information: 

(4) Acknowledge power dynamics. The Better Arguments Project notes that all civil dialogues are informed by historical context and are shaped by power dynamics. In their framework, they suggest that conversation participants recognize power, highlighting that “power impacts conversation dynamics. In many spaces of civil discourse, participants are reckoning with imbalances, real or perceived.” They suggest consideration of questions such as “What are the power dynamics related to the question at hand?” or “What role does each person play in contributing to the power dynamics at play?”

Check out the following for more information: 

(5) Engage in active listening. You know that feeling when you’re in a discussion waiting for your turn to talk so you start tuning out everything else that’s being said? The problem is that this is the opposite of what you want to do to promote civil dialogue; instead, experts suggest that taking an active listening approach can help you achieve the best outcomes. Some key elements of active listening during civil discourse can include: 

  1. Looping: listening attentively, summarizing what you understood was important to the other person, checking if what you understood was right with the person, correcting your interpretation, and then checking again;

  2. Paraphrasing: summarizing what you heard and checking in if you heard it correctly;

  3. Expressing empathy: attempting to understand another’s feelings and responding with support and understanding to their feelings, regardless of your own emotional response. Heterodox Academy suggests using language such as “What is it like for you to feel so…” or “That must be difficult to feel so… how does it affect your life?” to help further explore each other’s feelings and emotions within a conversation; 

  4. Body language: demonstrating you are listening through head nods, eye contact, turning your body towards the person, a relaxed posture, a lack of distractions and open facial expressions.

Check out the following for more information: 

(6) Hedge your claims. Even when you’re certain about your beliefs, present your claims and beliefs as changeable at the start. By doing so, Monica Guzman articulates, this “gives you room to revisit and rearticulate them as you let them mingle with others’ beliefs… and encourages others to loosen up, as well.” What does hedging look like? Hedging words include those such as “can,” “could,” “may,” “might,” “seem,” tend,” “likely,” “generally,” “seldom,” “often,” “occasionally,” “presumably,” “probably” “some,” and “others.” Essentially, hedging words indicate that you recognize that there is the possibility that there might be some cases where your beliefs might not be true or in which valuing the other side’s belief could be understandable or even valid (see what I did there?). 

Check out the following for more information: 

(7) Make the goal about understanding and learning, not about winning. Key ideas here are that rather than aiming to “win” a debate, discussion, or argument, we must change our goal towards trying to better understand the perspectives of those we’re debating, discussing, or arguing with. Certainly this is not an easy task, and a good dose of curiosity, open-mindedness, and intellectual humility are needed.

  1. Open-mindedness: be willing to investigate and take on the opposing perspective. The Dignity Index suggests using key phrases to try to help draw out another person’s perspective, such as: 

    1. “Can you tell me more about that?”

    2. “Let’s figure out what we disagree on; it can’t be everything.”

    3. “I want to hear what you think.”

    4. “Can you tell me what I’m not getting?”

  2. Curiosity: ask questions, particularly follow up questions. People who ask questions are more liked by their conversational partners, and questioning makes conversation partners more willing to listen to you. The Constructive Dialogue Institute suggests three types of questioning: 1) questions to help understand (e.g., “What is the heart of the matter for you?”); 2) questions that seek out unexpected answers (e.g., “What surprised you most about [topic]?”); and 3) questions that ask about a person’s thought process (e.g., “I’m curious about what led you to that idea. Can you explain?”). When all else fails, a simple “What did you mean?” said with curiosity can help the conversation to continue flowing. 

  3. Intellectual humility: practicing intellectual humility means questioning your own opinions and viewpoints, accepting that you might be wrong, and being willing to change your opinions. Someone who is intellectually humble says they don’t know if they don’t know. How can you become more intellectually humble in conversations? Actively try to prove yourself wrong. Play Devil’s advocate. Argue against yourself. Acknowledge the complexity of an issue, noting that an issue is not black and white, but perhaps shades in between. Intellectual humility might sound like: 

    1. “I don’t know.” 

    2. “I truly feel pulled in different directions about this issue…”

    3. “This is a tough one for me. Sometimes I think… and sometimes I think…”

Check out the following for more information: 

(8) Focus on issues, not individuals. The more a person engages in specifically calling out other individuals, the more likely they are to become defensive and to dig into their pre-held assumptions and beliefs. The goal is to avoid making people feel shamed and to instead focus on criticizing and critiquing people’s arguments and ideas, rather than individuals themselves. The Starts With Us movement refers to this idea as being “soft on people” but “hard on issues.” 

Check out the following for more information: 

(9) Embrace ambiguity. Civil discourse requires us to accept that no one group has all the answers. The Ohio University Center for Ethics and Human Values notes, “Civil discourse requires that we acknowledge that the truth can be many-sided and elusive: we often disagree about what key concepts mean, how to evaluate the relevant evidence, and how to weigh competing values against each other. Civil discourse therefore requires that we embrace the principles of fallibilism—that human beings often get things wrong—and pluralism—that people of good will often reach different conclusions.” Again, Starts With Us describes this process of discussion and problem solving as building a bridge– everyone must contribute building blocks to make the bridge stand. 

Check out the following for more information: 

Together, we hope that these resources and guidelines can help you have civil discussions in difficult circumstances. We know, though, that we’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg. If you have other tips, please leave them in the comments section below.

Releasing The Good Project Core Concepts Packet: All 10 Core Concepts Together!

10 Core Concepts to Support Good Work

Lynn Barendsen

What types of support do students need to be able to do good work in the classroom, in their efforts outside the classroom, and eventually, in the workplace? What skills and strategies will most prepare students for our rapidly evolving working world?

The Good Project Team has been studying good work for three decades and our current definition includes three key elements. Good work is excellent (high in quality), ethical (sensitive to impact and socially responsible) and engaging (meaningful and purposeful). 

However, the world of work is changing all around us. New categories of work (for example, gig workers) have emerged, technologies such as AI are impacting how work gets done, inequities are increasing. It’s important to consider these contexts and continually revisit our understandings and terminology. 

Our definitions are only useful if they continue to evolve; as a result we’ve recently examined all of our core good work concepts and worked to update our understandings in this blog series.

In addition to the three Es (excellence, ethics and engagement), we have identified seven concepts that are key to supporting good work in the classroom and beyond. Below, we provide a brief overview of each of these concepts and their relevance to good work. 

Let’s begin by unpacking the three core elements of good work. 

  • The concept of excellence remains key - excellence as an ideal to strive for - we want to understand why some individuals want to carry out high quality work and are able to sustain that excellence over time. Excellence in work is about more than simply meeting a particular benchmark (like a grade). Instead, excellence is related to the particular qualities, or behaviors, we work to cultivate in ourselves, setting and meeting personal standards. Excellence involves growth, is supported by insight and reflection and guided by personal values (more on those below). But, considering today’s mental health crisis, specifically in youth, we’ve learned to modulate our discussions about excellence. Depending on the context and particulars, always striving for excellence or “best” isn’t necessarily a good thing; some days, and in some contexts, “really good” might well be enough.

  • Ethics are perhaps more relevant than ever before. We need individuals who care about the consequences of their work and who strive to have a positive impact on the world. Ethics, like excellence, are informed by values and are often considered when we’re unsure about our decision-making. Often described in the context of a choice (or an ethical dilemma), ethics are usually understood as “right” vs. “wrong”, yet it’s rare that choices are that straightforward or clearcut. Difficult ethical decisions can be helped by frameworks, reflection and mentors.

  • The concept of engagement has to do with finding meaning or purpose in work. Individuals may find it impossible to continue to push for high quality, ethical work if they aren’t deeply engaged in their efforts. Often, people will have more energy when they’re engaged in their work. Connected to the concept of flow, we think about engagement as also connected to commitment, happiness, or satisfaction in work. It’s also possible to be over engaged, and issues of work/life balance are important considerations and something that can vary quite a bit depending on cultural contexts.

Our understanding of good work includes several additional core concepts, key in the development of skills and strategies to support good work in practice.

  • Values guide and define us. 

  • Responsibilities help us to understand ourselves, where we fit within our various communities and the world.

  • Models and Mentors inspire and support us.

  • Reflection is a crucial life and work skill for processing and learning.

  • As we reflect and consider our values, we may also consider our long term goals, or mission. Mission can be considered at an individual level or as part of a school, organization, or workplace. 

  • We can also consider the mission of the organization(s) we exist within. If we find we share major goals or share a common mission, we’re in alignment. 

  • If not, when various stakeholders are in pursuit of different goals, misalignment occurs.

  • Like reflection, recognizing, unpacking, and ultimately, solving dilemmas are critical skills in support of good work.

As should be clear by now, these ten concepts are interdependent. In other words, it is difficult, if not impossible, to consider responsibilities without some understanding of values. The concepts of alignment and misalignment make very little sense without the additional context possible with an understanding of mission. These concepts evolve not only as a result of context and culture, but as a result of this interdependence. As a team, we’ve recognized that we must continue to examine and update our definitions; in other words, we must establish our own habits of reflection in our efforts to research, understand and encourage good work.

All 10 Good Project Core Concepts

Tidbits from Tuscaloosa: Creating a Culture of Character in Schools

By Shelby Clark

A few weeks ago, I attended the “Character through Communities” conference at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama—“Roll Tide!” (as I learned to say while I was there). This was my first time in Alabama and really my first time anywhere in the “Deep South” barring southern Florida (which, I think, many would argue doesn’t count). This conference, facilitated by the University of Alabama, the Hope Institute, and Samson University, was held in order to help educators, academics, administrators and others think more about how we can facilitate character education in schools, with a particular focus on the role of relationships and communities in fostering student character. What were some take-aways for all who care about fostering character or social emotional learning in students?

  1. We are cultivating character in children, not assuming that character is something children innately have or do not have. Educators, administrators, researchers, parents, and more are planting the seeds and creating the right conditions in the gardens for students to grow into people of character. Clifton Taulbert, the opening keynote speaker, civil rights activist, and author of Eight Habits of the Heart, stated that “we can all be cultivators, we can all do something to make a difference [in the lives of children.].. Don’t remove yourself from the system.” 

Keynote speaker and character scholar Marvin Berkowitz called upon the Hebrew saying “tikkun olam” or “to heal the world,” explaining that educators have an “ethical obligation to improve the world, to make it a better place.” He said, “We are in the world changing business.” Rather than a garden, Berkowitz compared schools to a petri dish. If we want schools to be places where children’s character can flourish, then we need to be providing the right nutrients for character to grow. 

2. Administrators should create a school culture focused on character. One presenter insisted that administrators have a responsibility to create the school culture, and in particular a school culture focused on character. They asserted, “Principals have to carry the flag.” In particular, the conference emphasized that principals have to be role models of character, in essence “walking the walk” rather than “talking the talk.” In a later panel of school leaders, one leader mentioned that a school’s culture should feel like the building “is giving you a big hug.” 

The administrators furthermore emphasized that creating a culture of character in schools is not about making quick changes, but rather about small changes over time. One speaker referred to the book Atomic Habits, which talks about how small, 1% changes can add up over time to give you extraordinary results; it is the same with school cultures. Administrators need to celebrate their small wins and look at failures as opportunities for growth. Marvin Berkowitz similarly commented that administrators and educators need to “Dream big, think small, and act now.” 

Ideas suggested for how to focus your school culture on character included:

  • Make sure you have a structure and a plan regarding how to implement character in your school - “Just talking about it is not enough.”

  • Keep in mind that one size doesn’t fit all.

  • Provide protected time for character education (e.g., a character education class, advisory, etc.).

  • Secure resources for character education.

  • Discuss character education with staff and other stakeholders (e.g., in meetings).

  • Be intentional in your hiring and team selection (e.g., do they model character?).

3. Define your character education core values. Several of the presentations throughout the conference pointed out that there needs to be greater focus on defining and understanding core values. One presenter mentioned that, if a school team tells him that they want to help form productive citizens, his follow up questions include, “1) Do you have an operational definition of what a productive citizen is?; 2) Do you have initiatives to get to that?; and 3) How are you measuring that your students are getting there?” Drs. Ted Savage and Hank Staggs, keynote speakers, noted that having a common language regarding core values across a school system allows students to know that the expectations will look exactly the same in each of their classrooms. Ultimately, such uniformity helps erase confusion and makes more time for learning. Drs. Brendan White and Tanya Crockett likewise found that shared, common language around character is a staple of Character.org National Schools of Character.

Ideas suggested for how to define core values included: 

  • Everyone makes a list regarding which values are most important to them. Once those lists are narrowed down to the top values of the group, everyone is asked to describe each value, and these definitions are compared in terms of overlap.

  • Begin with an existing framework of values (such as that of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues). Have your staff and faculty narrow these down to their most important values, then have the parent community narrow these values down, then have your students narrow these values down again in order to find your final core values. 

  • For younger children, ask them to vote for the behaviors they might prefer, rather than which values they prefer (see picture). 

Assessment of elementary age students’ core values, presented by Ted Savage and Hank Staggs,

4. In the words of Marvin Berkowitz: “Relationships, relationships, relationships.” Clifton Taulbert noted that during his childhood growing up poor in the South, he had a variety of “porch people” in his community who felt responsible for him and helped him achieve success. He described one aunt who stood on her front porch every morning in order to hail down the school bus so he could go to school— otherwise it might have passed by. Taulbert quoted Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who said, “No one accomplishes anything alone.” State superintendent Eric Mackety further remarked that “children are children,” pointing out that they all want hugs, they all want adults to ask them how they’re doing, and they want to be able to ask adults how they’re doing. 

Ideas suggested for developing relationships included:

  • Creating teacher-run interest-based clubs that students can join. Teachers are then passionate about running these clubs and can share their passions with students and develop relationships with them.

  • Engage in icebreakers, such as showing each other something you care about on your phone.

  • As in this video, print out school rosters and have the entire staff write down how much they know about each student in the school.

  • Create a “house” system to build relationships amongst students. 

  • Have every classroom or homeroom adopt an adult in the building. 

5. Involve ALL of your stakeholders. Without the involvement of staff, faculty (or “staffulty,” as one presenter called them), parents, and students, several presenters pointed out that it is hard to fully implement character education in schools. One administrator emphasized, “if you haven’t made relationships with your bus drivers, you need to do that!” Marvin Berkowitz noted that administrators should approach their role as one of servant leadership towards their staff and faculty, adopting an attitude of humility, forgiveness, gratitude, empowerment, foresight, stewardship, bravery, and noble purpose. He joked, “If you are a servant leader and help every teacher in your school become the best teacher they can be, then you [administrators] can sit in your office and play Angry Birds all day.” 

Ideas suggested for involving stakeholders included: 

  • Conduct individual check-ins with staff.

  • Visit local stakeholders (e.g. with parents at the local playground). 

  • Involve parents and community members in defining a school’s core values.  

  • Establish a parent advisory for the principal, allow everyone to add agenda items, and, in particular, make sure that at least one of the agenda items is about character education.

  • Add staff members to the school leadership team.

  • Create student ambassadors.

  • Offer character oriented professional development for stakeholders.

  • Empower your stakeholders and honor their voice.

  • Allow character education at your school to become a collaborative project. 

Of course, these are not the only ways to ensure children grow in their character, but they certainly offer some ways to get started when thinking about adopting a whole school character model. 

For more information about adopting a whole-school model of character education based on The Good Project’s core ideas and concepts, visit the link here. Let us know what your school is doing to implement character education efforts in the comments below! 

What is Harkness, and How Do You Teach It?

What is Harkness, and How Do You Teach It? 

Shelby Clark

I started my first day at the GCI Summit and Seminar for Educators observing the Seminar for Educators– nine educators from all over the world who had come together to learn more about the "GCI Method." GCI– Global Citizens Initiative– brings together student fellows and educators from all over the world each summer for a week to learn more about Design Thinking, student-centered learning (the Harkness Method), and intercultural citizenship and human connectivity. Student fellows leave the week prepared to engage in a nine-month "glocal" project oriented around making changes on a UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). As some of you might not be familiar with this pedagogy, I wanted to share some reflections for you to think about as you consider bringing Harkness pedagogy into your classrooms. 

Educators spent their first day at the Summit learning about Design Thinking and, on the second day, engaged in learning about Harkness as a student-centered discussion pedagogy. What were some take-aways? 

How is Harkness different from a Socratic Seminar? 

Figure 1.

Schrodt, K., Smith, L., FitzPatrick, E., & Liu, J. (2023). Facilitating Critical Discussion of Picturebooks Through Socratic Seminars in a Kindergarten Classroom. Early Childhood Education Journal, 1-18. Retrieved here. 

In a Socratic Seminar, students may speak to one another. However, more often than not, the teacher is still in charge of the discussion and has an end goal in mind for where they want the conversation to go. For the most part, students still look to the teacher to guide the discussion. 

In a Harkness discussion, teachers do not have a content-related end goal in mind– students should be the leaders of the conversation. They should not be looking at the teacher but should instead be looking at each other. 

See the image above. In the first, a more traditional Socratic Seminar, the discussion is continually guided by the teacher. In contrast, in the second, the kindergarten class has moved towards a Harkness discussion, wherein the conversation is equally distributed among all class members. 

Facilitator Molly Simmons noted that teachers should think of Harkness as "learning as play." 

What's happening at the table? What are students discussing? 

Students are analyzing a text, whether a book, an article, a podcast, a media clip, etc. Molly Simmons noted that you, as the teacher, must be "VERY intentional about the texts that you choose." Preparation for a Harkness teacher is:

  • Finding useful and evocative texts for the table.

  • Annotating the texts.

  • Figuring out what questions you have about the texts as a teacher.

  • Determining your questions for students. 

Students should be prepared for class by reviewing and annotating this text. Ms. Simmons noted that students often learn how to annotate a text through Harkness. Anytime they make a point and do not provide evidence to back it up, teachers can ask, "Where do you SEE that in the text?" Through such questions, students begin to mark the evidence they need in their texts. 

Ms. Simmons also noted that there were several other ways that she prompted students to annotate their texts, including asking students: 

  • "What are words you don't get? Note those"

  • "Show me the page where you talked to the text the most."

  • To "Note questions in the margins." 

  • "Show me how you're preparing, and I'll give you an 'in' tomorrow in the conversation." 

She stated that this last prompt was particularly useful for quieter students who have not yet figured out how to enter the conversation.  

Notably, Ms. Simmons commented that, above all, it is about letting students bring to the table what they are noticing and what will help the students come to a deeper understanding of the text. She noted, "What you get curious about is what you remember,"-- reiterating that Harkness is about the teacher putting their ego aside and allowing students to come to their own realizations. 

How do you involve students who are not participating? What about students who talk too much? 

The idea of tracking the Harkness discussion was discussed several times throughout the day (learn more here). During a discussion, Harkness teachers often draw a Harkness table on a sheet of paper, mark the students around the table, and then draw lines across the table to indicate who is talking when to whom. Teachers sometimes include reference letters to tell if a student has referenced the text, asked a question, brought someone else into the conversation, and more. 

At the Harkness table, students who talk too much are often called "Harkness warriors." Ms. Simmons observed that these students often need to practice their listening skills and tend to "LOVE tracking the conversation." 

The tracking strategy can also work well for larger classes, where not all students can participate in a Harkness discussion simultaneously. Seminar Educators discussed using a fishbowl strategy with 12 students engaged in the Harkness discussion, while another eight students tracked the conversation from the outside. Then, if time permits, the teacher could "flip flop" so the other students could discuss – or, if not, they could periodically pause until the next class for the other students to contribute. 

How do you start a Harkness class? 

Do students sit down and start discussing? Ms. Simmons shared that perhaps in older grades (11th & 12th), she might sit down and ask, "Where do you guys want to start?" Otherwise, Ms. Simmons and the other Harkness instructors at the Seminar all shared ways to help open classes with icebreakers or additional ways to "ground" their students in their texts. 

These included: 

  • Pair and share, then share out with the table 

  • Read the line of the text that impacted you the most 

  • Put up a quote on the board that we should dive into 

  • Do a quick reading quiz 

  • Draw your favorite scene on the board 

How do you assess Harkness? 

Ms. Simmons was clear that "if part of your grade is discussion, it needs to be explicit." One way to create an assessment for Harkness discussed was to develop a clear rubric, such as using the 22 traits of a Harkness classroom to outline student expectations. 

In particular, it was noted that teachers often need to be explicit with younger grade students (e.g., 9th graders), such as stating that they must speak 3 times per class. While this might encourage statements such as "I agree," Ms. Simmons noted that it's often okay for students to start this way as it gets them normalized towards speaking at the table. 

If teachers need more objective assessments, Ms. Simmons suggested reading quizzes or creating precise 1-5 rating scales on your rubrics (such as ratings for how students move the discussion forward). 

Summing Up

Ultimately, Ms. Simmons noted that Harkness "comes down to being an exercise in listening." She will call out students for repeating something another student says and does not want students to think that "loud is right." She similarly remains firm that Harkness is rooted in texts. She noted, "It's debate when no one is analyzing the text"-- not Harkness. Finally, Harkness means finding ways to create the psychological safety students need to participate at the table. Ms. Simmons spoke about "giving inroads" at the table for quieter students, teaching students not to call one another out but instead focus on learning how to help one another, doing warm-ups together, learning phrases such as "What I'm really interested in…" or "What I'm really curious about…" to respond to one another and more. 

Later on my first day at the Summit, I watched student fellows engage in a Harkness warm-up with another Harkness teacher. The goal was for the student fellows to get through the entire alphabet with a fellow saying one letter and passing it off to another fellow without calling on one another; they needed to use body language or other means to indicate who could go next. If fellows spoke at the same time, they had to restart. These fellows had only known each other for a few days, yet just through this brief warm-up, I could see the magic of Harkness beginning to happen. Students laughed; they attended to each other's body language carefully; they listened intently. They didn't want to stop, sure that they just needed one more time to get it right. They were already joined as a group in search of a common goal. By the time they actually pulled out their texts for their Harkness discussion, they were ready to go.

The Good Project Core Concepts: Engagement

by Shelby Clark

When you go to work, how do you feel? Consider the following questions: 

  • At work, do you feel bursting with energy? 

  • At work, do you feel full of meaning and purpose? 

  • Does time fly when you are working?

  • Are you enthusiastic about your job? 

  • Does your job inspire you? 

  • When you get up in the morning, do you want to go to work? 

If you answered yes to many of these questions, it’s likely that you feel very engaged by your work. Engagement can refer to how committed individuals feel towards their “work, team, and organization.” How happy and satisfied someone is at work is also often an element of worker engagement, perhaps why engagement and well-being efforts often go hand-in-hand. Commitment, happiness, satisfaction – these ideas of engagement are common. For example, students might be described as engaged in their school work if they show dedication and “stick-to-itiveness” or if they are consistently excited to show up to school each day.  

Here at The Good Project, the idea of engagement, in addition to ethics and excellence, serves as one of our 3 Es of “good work.” However, when The Good Project research originally began in the 1990s, this concept was not a part of the original “Es.” As Gardner described in Good Work: Theory and Practice, “To be sure, Excellence and Ethics emerged soon after Humane Creativity [the original Good Work study] had transmogrified into a study of the professions; but Engagement was added near the end of the empirical study.” 

The Good Work research study originally began with hundreds of interviews from a variety of different professions, including those such as genetics, journalism, law, and medicine. However, it was not until the research sample was later broadened to include more of the caring professions, such as teachers and nurses, that engagement was added to the “good work” model. These interviews indicated that without a clear commitment to and love of one’s work, those in these caring professions burnout or quickly leave the field. However, as other Good Project research has shown, too much engagement, or an overidentification with one’s work, can similarly lead to burnout. 

Lynn Barendsen described this phenomenon of engagement and over-engagement in The Good Project’s work with teachers over the past several years. These teachers, as Lynn noted, worked with The Good Project team on various research projects and have been “deeply committed to their students. Their work often went “above and beyond” - beyond regular hours and beyond “formal” commitments. The shared experiences between teachers and students can be positive experiences for both: teachers often describe learning from students, feeling a deep sense of meaning in their work; students identify teachers as role models for a lifetime. And yet teachers who give too much of themselves (especially in these days of remote learning) may well suffer from burnout and exhaustion.

Engagement as one of The Good Project’s 3 Es has been left open to some interpretation to fit a variety of contexts. In 2010, in line with Csikszentmihalyi’s original contributions to the Good Work project, we wrote that engagement means that the work “yields experiences of flow”. By 2015, engagement meant that a worker “likes to go to work, appreciates the institution in which she works, values her colleagues, and relishes the opportunity to practice her craft.” In 2021, we spoke of engaging work as being work that is “meaningful and purposeful for the worker.”

Figuring out how to create meaningful and purposeful work is not a new phenomenon (Cal Newport of The New Yorker asks us to remember the “follow your passion” hysteria of the 1990s parents of today’s Millennials). However, with the onset of Covid-19, the question of how to create and maintain one’s engagement in work became more important than ever, particularly in some spheres. A 2022 Gallup poll found that 44% of teachers felt burned out at work – significantly more than full time workers in any other industry. Moreover, only 35% of U.S. workers overall are considered “engaged” at work, and 61% of Gen Zers want a job that has a purpose beyond making a profit. 

At The Good Project, we’ve found that engagement overlaps with a variety of our other core concepts, such as missions, values, and responsibilities. A main finding from our work has been that having a common purpose or mission can often serve as a guidepost for employee engagement. As Lynn Barendsen explained, “Having a religious basis for work, or having colleagues that share the same mission, whether frankly religious or religious in spirit, can sometimes spell the difference between continuing and dropping out.” The Good Project has found that mission statements can help individuals to identify how their own values are in line with the mission of their organization. Indeed, missing statements have the power to “unify people around a common idea” and ask individuals to think about whether they agree with the kind of impact their organization is making in the world. 

Furthermore, The Good Project work has encouraged individuals to understand how their personal values contribute to their feelings of engagement. Individuals might do this by exploring their values via The Good Project Value Sort. That is, what is more important to them – acquiring wealth, acquiring fame, acquiring learning, or helping the community? Such rankings can help guide individuals to pursue work and activities that are more focused on their preferred values.

We know that more and more workers want to feel they are making a difference and are doing meaningful work. By using The Good Project’s Rings of Responsibility activity or exploring our impact framework, individuals can explore more what it means for them to make a difference in the world. Pursuing such work is another way for individuals to feel greater engagement.  

Consider the above definitions and suggestions. Would you consider yourself engaged at work? If yes, why? If not, why not? Might you be over-engaged? Burned out? Take stock of some of the suggestions recommended above. Do any of them resonate with your experience? Maybe your organization just needs to better articulate its mission and goals in order for you to feel a sense of direction. Or, rather, maybe your organization has a strong sense of mission, and you’re just not sure whether or not your values align because you haven’t had a chance to reflect on it systematically. Instead, perhaps you need to re-prioritize based on your overall goals for making a difference in your life. Or, maybe there is a conversation that could be started at your work regarding new goal setting or changing mindsets. 

Certainly, not every job will be engaging for every worker. But, hopefully, this blog helps offer some guidance for thinking about what engagement is and how and why one is or is not engaged in a variety of settings. 

Below are some resources you might use to explore engagement: 

A video describing the 3Es of The Good Project (Ethics, Excellence, & Engagement): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLNqvhQUGPU&list=PL5sNbw1uznitpzLCwnv49tgumEAh1bcxG

What is my Mission? Activity 

https://www.thegoodproject.org/activities-database-blog/2020/8/12/interview-a-worker-9wg8s-xgzhs-k3prh-2g5k7-zewcz-d2bch?rq=engagement

“Tough Love” Dilemma

https://www.thegoodproject.org/activities-database-blog/2020/8/12/interview-a-worker-9wg8s-xgzhs-k3prh?rq=engagement

Picture Yourself as a… 

https://www.thegoodproject.org/activities-database-blog/2020/7/13/your-two-cents-lblty-b2854-y5xrs-b2jp4-zwkmk-6esn9-xdyny-fmwyf-p2rcr-92wa8?rq=engagement