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4/28/2025 208. Building Community-Wide Capacity to Engage in Hard Conversations with PreschoolersRead Now
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In this episode, we’re talking about what it means to build a community-wide capacity to engage in hard conversations with preschool children. What does it look like to honor their natural curiosity and be willing to have meaningful discussions together?
We break down strategies that educators—and parents or community members—can use with students at any age level, emphasizing the importance of validating a child’s curiosity and encouraging them to ask questions. Why? Research shows that children as young as four are aware of socioeconomic differences, race, or gender—children recognize differences in identity and are ready to talk about them. It's crucial, then, to provide a nurturing space where kids feel supported to ask questions and explore these topics. What? Working with this base assumption that children are not too young to engage in hard conversations, how do we best approach it? Here are some steps educators and other adults can take: Step 1: Appreciate the question. Validating a child’s natural curiosity is a key first step in the process. When they ask a question, appreciate and affirm it—“Wow, that’s a fascinating question!” or “That’s a great question, thanks for bringing it up.” Step 2: Get curious back. After appreciating their question, go back and ask a follow-up question. You could say, "What's making you think about that?” or “How are you feeling about that?” Open some space for emotions and feelings around the topic, so you can get a sense of where they are coming from. Step 3: Follow the conversation. With young children, you’re not likely to sit and have a full conversation and be done with it. They will bring it up at other times, or the topic may arise through TV shows, picture books, and other media. Follow the conversation and be willing to check back in with it over time. One framework to help build these conversations is adapted from Glasser’s five human needs—the 4 Fs, which are freedom, family, and fun. They relate to human needs and interplay with socioeconomic differences (i.e., how money can facilitate fun, but it isn’t the only way to have fun). You can use this simplified language they understand to talk about differences and how people uniquely experience the world. Step 4: Use self-talk to maintain composure. It’s important to engage in some self-talk to manage your own emotions. You may want to follow internal scripts like, “I don’t need to have answers, I just need to listen.” This takes the pressure off—you don’t need to know everything. Your goal is to support the child, and you can always follow up later with an answer or support for them to find the answers. Another key script to repeat internally is, “The most important thing is that they come to me with questions.” As children grow up, they’ll continue to be bombarded with harmful messaging on social media; it’s critical that they have safe adults to go to with their questions. Step 5: Engage families and communities. This goes beyond just educators and students—it’s community capacity-building. Involve current and prospective families in this, offering professional development and engagement so we can holistically support children together. Final Tip Prepare and use scripts for both external conversations and internal self-talk to stay engaged in difficult discussions with children. To help you implement today’s takeaways, I’m sharing my scripts for staying engaged in critical conversations with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 208 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript below.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about more tips and resources like this one below:
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In this episode, we’re reimagining civics education through a lens of storytelling and dialogue, drawing from Nicole Mirra and Antero Garcia’s book, Civics for the World to Come.
In it, they discuss a five-part framework that educators can use in their classrooms to conduct meaningful civic discourse. Storytelling, lived experiences, and personal narratives are central to this approach, allowing students to engage meaningfully with what’s important to them and their community to help build a better future. Why? In today’s charged political climate, many students are embracing civic engagement and the fight for a better, more equitable future. However, the traditional modes of civic education tend to focus more on systems and institutions rather than personal stories and current societal issues. If educators can shift toward a problem-solving, student-led model, civic education can become both more engaging and impactful in addressing important societal challenges. What? The authors of Civics for the World to Come introduce a framework with five world-building skills:
Educators may find all elements of this framework useful in their civics curriculum, but this episode dives deeper into one element—storytelling. Here are some ways educators can take this principle and apply it to meaningful classroom discussion and student learning. Step 1: Interrogate your curriculum The first mindset shift for educators is looking at the current curriculum and how to design it in a way that engages with individual, interpersonal, and community stories. Is it centered on understanding, or does it rely only on regurgitating facts and getting it “right?” Research tells us that stories are just as likely to influence people as facts, so there needs to be a blend of using both to understand civic discussions. Step 2: Tell your story Another key piece for educators and students alike is to contextualize personal experiences. The authors distinguish between an autobiography (i.e., what’s your story?) and an autoethnography (i.e., what’s the social context your story happened in?). This framework helps students think of their personal narratives plus the beliefs, values, ideas, and experiences they bring to the discussion. Step 3: Choose activities and protocols to explore civic issues Use some structured classroom activities to help students engage in discussion. Examples include:
Step 4: Focus on critical literacy As you move through different topics in your civics curricula, focus on developing the skill of critical literacy. This is looking at relevant media and uncovering biases, asking questions like—what is this piece of media telling about my topic? Where are the silences and gaps? What questions do I need to explore? Final Tip To shift from facts-and-figures civics education to a relevant, real civic discourse on present topics that matter, we must always root it in students’ lived experiences. This makes it more engaging in the class but also helps students take positive, transformative action with problems that affect them and their community. To help you implement today’s takeaways, I’m sharing my 4-Part Series: How to Talk About Things That Matter with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 207 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript below.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about more tips and resources like this one below:
Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below:
In this episode, we are diving into three inquiry routines that frame the Investigating History curriculum, which is currently being rolled out in fifth through seventh grade across Massachusetts.
The three routines are: launching the question, investigating sources, and putting it together. These routines not only equip students with essential historical thinking skills, but also promote civic engagement and analytical discourse. By fostering student-centered learning, educators can guide students to develop focused questions, critically evaluate sources, and synthesize their findings into well-reasoned arguments. Why? Today, students are inundated with information, so it’s critically important to learn to evaluate diverse sources and understand what’s factual and what’s false. This Investigating History framework enables educators to teach students to use inquiry routines to think critically and analyze information well. What? The Investigating History framework has three key steps: 1) launching the question, 2) investigating sources, and 3) putting it together. Here are some steps an educator can take to bring this to life in your classroom: Step 1: Spark student interest. Introduce your topic with a compelling question, statement, video, image, or other source that will prompt their thinking around the topic. You want it to be unique and engaging to capture interest from the start. Step 2: Introduce a question Your question should be broad enough to cover a series of lessons. One example from Investigating History’s curriculum is to show students a map, sparking their interest. The question then, is, “what do maps tell us about people?” This guiding question can cover several questions or a whole unit. Step 3: Create an inquiry chart. After introducing a broad question, students will start asking smaller questions and breaking it down further. Ask students what other questions come up, what they’re curious about, and what they need to discover to answer the big question. You might use one of these strategies:
Step 4: Investigate sources—observe, read, and connect. The Ingestivating History curriculum invites students to first observe the source—what kind of source is it? What skills do we need to evaluate it? Then, read (or view) the source, looking at it in-depth. Finally, connect it to the larger question you previously identified. This process can be repeated for several sources related to your main question. Step 5: Synthesize and put it all together. After working through various sources, start bringing them together to answer your main question. Track key ideas and draw conclusions. You’ll want to build a formative or summative assessment process here as well. For example, you may want students to submit a claim-evidence-reasoning paragraph that shows how they’ve analyzed a source to answer the key question. Final Tip Empower students to lead their discussions and inquiries, fostering independence and critical thinking that extend beyond the history classroom. To help you implement today’s takeaways, I’m sharing my Inquiry Routines Resource Bank with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 206 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript below.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about more tips and resources like this one below:
Listen to the episode by clicking the link to your preferred podcast platform below:
In this episode, we are continuing the mini-series from the last two episodes on supporting students to critically analyze power dynamics, specifically looking at socioeconomic class.
We introduce McGregor's Marxist-inspired conceptual framework to dissect authority, consumerism, and individualism within popular children's TV shows. The discussion emphasizes the importance of valuing students' prior knowledge and lived experiences to analyze this topic. Why? Socioeconomic class is another important, but challenging, topic for educators to bring up in class. By offering students tools to critically think and analyze inherent power dynamics, they can better engage with complex topics and enhance cultural literacy and awareness. What? Educators can structure their curriculum on analyzing power dynamics and socioeconomic class by following the same four steps we have walked through in this mini-series (episodes 203 and 204): Step 1: Select a theory or framework that works for your context. When looking at socioeconomic class, you can use Iris Young’s Five Faces of Oppression framework or the NYU scorecard we discussed in episode 204. You can also introduce McGregor's Marxist-inspired conceptual framework, which was developed in relation to TV shows for young children (2-6 years old). McGregor’s framework covers:
Step 2: Simplify the chosen framework to make it accessible to students. McGregor’s framework is rich and complex, so you may want to break it down and simplify things. For example, you can combine the five sections into just three simplified categories: “Rules, “making money,” and “I can do it myself.” Step 3: Engage students with captivating media. McGregor’s framework was originally developed around children’s shows that had gender and racial diversity of characters (e.g., Arther, Curious George, Doc McStuffins, and Sophia the First). Educators can also use these shows, or choose other media. Step 4: Consistently apply the framework to other course content, connecting it to other curricula you are teaching. You can also use visual reminders or anchor charts to reinforce learning throughout lessons or units. Final Tip Embrace students' diverse perspectives and experiences as valuable assets in discussions on power dynamics and societal norms. Their lived experiences are valuable prior knowledge that informs their analyses and understanding, and it’s just as—if not more—important than traditional memorization of facts or regurgitation of things. To help you implement today’s takeaways, I’m sharing my Critical Analysis Resource Bank with you for free. And, if you’re looking for more details on the ideas in this blog post, listen to episode 205 of the Time for Teachership podcast. If you’re unable to listen or you prefer to read the full episode, you can find the transcript below Quotes:
If you enjoyed this episode, check out my YouTube channel where you can learn about more tips and resources like this one below:
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AuthorLindsay Lyons is an educational justice coach who helps schools and districts co-create feminist, antiracist civics-based curricula, discussion opportunities, and equitable policies that challenge, affirm, and inspire all students. A former NYC public school teacher, she holds a PhD in Leadership and Change, and is the founder of the blog and podcast, Time for Teachership. Lindsay believes all students deserve literacy, criticality, and leadership skills. Archives
November 2025
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