Leading for social cohesion: Schools and communities facilitating ‘challenging conversations’ about social and political volatilities

Education and community-focused responses are crucial in tackling issues such as racism, sexism, radicalisation and family breakdown. These issues impact significantly on vulnerable children and youth. They lead to high levels of learner disengagement and poor retention rates. Schools can play a key role in collaborating with parents and communities by providing a platform for open discussion to challenge polarising and divisive language that affects children and youth’s educational outcomes and wellbeing.
The goal is to map conversations arising from these challenging social issues and the role that such conversations can play through early intervention to prevent disharmonies, exclusion and anti-social behaviours, particularly with vulnerable children/youth.