Defining, building, and sustaining community across K-12 classrooms
Back to BlogDefining, building, and sustaining community across K-12 classrooms
07/23/2025
In recent years, the concept “building community” has been highlighted as a supportive mechanism for the development of positive school cultures. As an offshoot of this concept, school leaders have touted the value of building relationships; striving toward relational goals that will improve school climates overall. Although this vision for schools has gained traction in contemporary education settings, its role within the context of the urban classroom requires greater attention. Growing demands to fulfill academic agendas, coupled with increased student diversity - cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and socio-economic -, suggest that schools must consider how “community” is defined, developed and sustained. For the purpose of this blog entry, the concept “community” will be defined as a context in which interpersonal interactions bring about positive feelings that are shared by members of a group. Figure 1 shows types of relationships nested within K-12 school communities:
Figure 1. A visual representation of the nested relationships within the school community.
In the context of schools and classrooms, psychologically healthy communities are those in which positive feelings are communicated whether through words or actions. Positive feelings are derived from conditions in which care and respect are accorded. All students are held to high expectations; challenged to think, and encouraged to participate in the life of the school.
Consequently, students develop feelings of belonging, a characteristic that encourages greater effort while increasing students’ self worth in the academic environment.
As schools strive to promote community and relationships at school leadership and classroom levels in support of diverse learners, the following strategies may be undertaken:
1. School Leadership Practices: Develop a Vision
Building communities that reflect positive school cultures and climate begins with a clear vision that is communicated to all stakeholders. This vision is congruent with one’s beliefs as well as consistent with what one values in the teaching and learning context. Without a clear vision of what care and respect looks like, schools are likely to fall in patterns that are deemed status quo.
2. School Leadership Practice: Make Visible, Make Public
To manifest behaviors consistent with the vision of the community, it is important to take important non arbitrary steps to ensure the visibility of expectations. For stakeholders to internalize and reproduce expectations across the school community, school leaders have a responsibility to model the kinds of behaviors expected of staff and students. Authentic demonstration of behaviors including caring and respect are likely to be adopted when seen, heard, and felt.
3. School Leadership Practice: Continuous Assessment
A clearly articulated vision with indicators established requires ongoing checks to determine how it is going within the school community. With close observations during environmental walks, school leadership will be able to gauge the degree to which the vision is being realized. These “audits” conducted in concert with community members are sources of data that inform reflections, feedback, and next step opportunities for growth.
4. School Level Supports: Prepare for Leadership and Service
As schools function as microcosms of the larger society, it is important to prepare students for the roles they will assume in their communities. Schools can prepare diverse learners for roles characteristic of leadership and service by creating opportunities in which diverse learners perform functions associated with specific roles within the school. In this regard, diverse voices are introduced to engage in decision making processes. Inherent in such processes is the ability to strengthen relationships while building leadership competencies and civic-mindedness.
5. Classroom Supports: Promote Scholarship
Preparing diverse learners for scholarship requires structures that support a sense of belonging, trust and risk-taking. When the needs of the classroom are surfaced to develop ground rules for respectful classroom interactions, the potential to learn increases. When ground rules are developed collaboratively, and are rehearsed, a psychologically safe environment is created for students to engage with free exchange of ideas. When ground rules are created, learners are assured the opportunity to take risks within the learning community. Ground rules serve to maintain relationships built on respect and the shared goal of maximizing learning outcomes.
6. Classroom Supports: Language of healthy prosocial behaviors
In communities defined by healthy relationships, individuals thrive under conditions in which they are acknowledged, included, appreciated, or celebrated. An atmosphere described as such is intentionally developed by teaching students the language of healthy prosocial behaviors. While schools prioritize language of the disciplines, teaching students the language of respectful exchanges is equally important to ensure all students are invited into classroom conversations. To support these conditions, language scaffolds for giving and receiving feedback offers opportunities to develop prosocial exchanges.
7. Classroom Support: Making Time
Beyond the scheduled classroom interaction time are occasions that offer opportunities to listen to students whose lives differ from teachers. While the lunch period may be a sacred space in the lives of teachers, there is great value in dedicating at least one period per week for the purpose of informal interactions with students. Yes, schools may integrate such times through advisories or clubs and societies, however, time allotted for more personalized interactions set the stage for really listening to students and their stories. Actions like this, communicate, “I see you, I hear, I understand you.”
As schools continue to serve diverse learners, it is important to consider how an environment of support can be built to ensure academic goals are met. With community and relationships acting as crucial mechanisms for strong academic outcomes, intentional efforts must be made to promote students’ identities - intersections of their past with the present to access meaningful futures.
Author: Nadger S. Henry, Ed.D.
Professional Affiliation: New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) -
Assistant Principal; Alumni, Johns Hopkins University School of Education
In recent years, the concept “building community” has been highlighted as a supportive mechanism for the development of positive school cultures. As an offshoot of this concept, school leaders have touted the value of building relationships; striving toward relational goals that will improve school climates overall. Although this vision for schools has gained traction in contemporary education settings, its role within the context of the urban classroom requires greater attention. Growing demands to fulfill academic agendas, coupled with increased student diversity - cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and socio-economic -, suggest that schools must consider how “community” is defined, developed and sustained. For the purpose of this blog entry, the concept “community” will be defined as a context in which interpersonal interactions bring about positive feelings that are shared by members of a group. Figure 1 shows types of relationships nested within K-12 school communities:
Figure 1. A visual representation of the nested relationships within the school community.In the context of schools and classrooms, psychologically healthy communities are those in which positive feelings are communicated whether through words or actions. Positive feelings are derived from conditions in which care and respect are accorded. All students are held to high expectations; challenged to think, and encouraged to participate in the life of the school.
Consequently, students develop feelings of belonging, a characteristic that encourages greater effort while increasing students’ self worth in the academic environment.
As schools strive to promote community and relationships at school leadership and classroom levels in support of diverse learners, the following strategies may be undertaken:
1. School Leadership Practices: Develop a Vision
Building communities that reflect positive school cultures and climate begins with a clear vision that is communicated to all stakeholders. This vision is congruent with one’s beliefs as well as consistent with what one values in the teaching and learning context. Without a clear vision of what care and respect looks like, schools are likely to fall in patterns that are deemed status quo.
2. School Leadership Practice: Make Visible, Make Public
To manifest behaviors consistent with the vision of the community, it is important to take important non arbitrary steps to ensure the visibility of expectations. For stakeholders to internalize and reproduce expectations across the school community, school leaders have a responsibility to model the kinds of behaviors expected of staff and students. Authentic demonstration of behaviors including caring and respect are likely to be adopted when seen, heard, and felt.
3. School Leadership Practice: Continuous Assessment
A clearly articulated vision with indicators established requires ongoing checks to determine how it is going within the school community. With close observations during environmental walks, school leadership will be able to gauge the degree to which the vision is being realized. These “audits” conducted in concert with community members are sources of data that inform reflections, feedback, and next step opportunities for growth.
4. School Level Supports: Prepare for Leadership and Service
As schools function as microcosms of the larger society, it is important to prepare students for the roles they will assume in their communities. Schools can prepare diverse learners for roles characteristic of leadership and service by creating opportunities in which diverse learners perform functions associated with specific roles within the school. In this regard, diverse voices are introduced to engage in decision making processes. Inherent in such processes is the ability to strengthen relationships while building leadership competencies and civic-mindedness.
5. Classroom Supports: Promote Scholarship
Preparing diverse learners for scholarship requires structures that support a sense of belonging, trust and risk-taking. When the needs of the classroom are surfaced to develop ground rules for respectful classroom interactions, the potential to learn increases. When ground rules are developed collaboratively, and are rehearsed, a psychologically safe environment is created for students to engage with free exchange of ideas. When ground rules are created, learners are assured the opportunity to take risks within the learning community. Ground rules serve to maintain relationships built on respect and the shared goal of maximizing learning outcomes.
6. Classroom Supports: Language of healthy prosocial behaviors
In communities defined by healthy relationships, individuals thrive under conditions in which they are acknowledged, included, appreciated, or celebrated. An atmosphere described as such is intentionally developed by teaching students the language of healthy prosocial behaviors. While schools prioritize language of the disciplines, teaching students the language of respectful exchanges is equally important to ensure all students are invited into classroom conversations. To support these conditions, language scaffolds for giving and receiving feedback offers opportunities to develop prosocial exchanges.
7. Classroom Support: Making Time
Beyond the scheduled classroom interaction time are occasions that offer opportunities to listen to students whose lives differ from teachers. While the lunch period may be a sacred space in the lives of teachers, there is great value in dedicating at least one period per week for the purpose of informal interactions with students. Yes, schools may integrate such times through advisories or clubs and societies, however, time allotted for more personalized interactions set the stage for really listening to students and their stories. Actions like this, communicate, “I see you, I hear, I understand you.”
As schools continue to serve diverse learners, it is important to consider how an environment of support can be built to ensure academic goals are met. With community and relationships acting as crucial mechanisms for strong academic outcomes, intentional efforts must be made to promote students’ identities - intersections of their past with the present to access meaningful futures.
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