Bolstering Identity Safety At Home And School | Bright Classroom Ideas

Identity safety has been shown to have a positive influence on student’s performance in school. When students’ backgrounds and identities are validated, and they feel a sense of belonging, they achieve higher levels. Additional research demonstrates the benefits of families and schools partnering to draw from culturally sustaining practices and build on strengths to apply identity safe principles at school and at home.

Identity Safe Spaces at Home and School: Partnerships to Overcome Inequity was written in response to this urgent need. To bring the research to life, we interviewed 29 people aged 8 to 70+ from many backgrounds, including different races, languages, cultures, ethnicities, neurodiversities, and gender and sexual orientations. We asked our contributors three primary questions.

What actions made a difference in your life to help you feel positive about your background and identity?

What actions helped you develop resilience to overcome negative or unfair experiences (such as bullying or discrimination)?

We also asked educators and parents, “How do you support children’s positive identity development and resilience?”

Their responses connect the research and practice to real-life experiences that identify and amplify the ideals of employing identity safety at home and school.

In this blog, we draw from our book to present three big ideas to parents…