If this is your first time here on the blog, welcome! This is a series about a Community of Practice experience. Read more here.
In order to begin working with something like radical love, I think it’s important to understand the concept in our own terms. We often have been conditioned to listen for the feeling of love rather than thinking of it as an action.
In this first session of the Radical Love Community of Practice in the Fall of 2025, 5 coaches met in a meeting room, in person. We used the slideshow projected on the board as well as shared with the group individually on their own computers. They could check out the entire slideshow, there were no surprises.
We started by reviewing the goals: 1) Define our practice space with agreements and learner needs and 2) define the vocabulary. I’m working with trusted colleagues – each of them said yes for different reasons, but I am grateful for each of them being there. As such we have some basic understandings but this is a different context, every one feels the possibility.
I offered some of my favorite Community Agreements to get us started from Courageous Conversations:
- Stay Engaged
- Speak Your Truth
- Experience Discomfort
- Expect and accept non-closure
As we discussed these agreements, we added something about confidentiality: What is learned here leaves, what is said here stays here.
This was a fantastic start to our session, understanding what each of these agreements meant was important. Once we had agreements in order, we engaged in an activity where each person named what they needed as a learner using cards I created back when I was in the classroom. These words were combined from the UDL guidelines, the Search Institute’s Developmental Relationship Framework, and from the National Core Arts Standards. Words that arose were choice, agency, and predictability. These helped me know what the people in the room needed to learn while also confirming the planning method that I had completed for this session.
We moved from these foundational pieces to understanding the vocabulary of radical love within a community of practice. We did a collaborative card sort – using the vocabulary, a definition, and a visual for the major words: Radical Love, Community of Practice, Instructional Coaching, and Dialogue. Coaches worked together to understand and match the words and visuals. Once they “matched,” the partners began to make sense of the definitions and rewrite using their own experience and expertise. Then we had a conversation using the 4C’s Protocol but I had modified using these questions:
- Connections: What connections do you draw between the words and your own life or your other learning?
- Challenge: What ideas, positions, or assumptions do you want to challenge or argue with in the words/definitions?
- Concepts: What key concepts or ideas do you think are important and worth holding on to from the words/definitions?
- Changes: What changes in attitudes, thinking, or action are suggested by the words, either for you or others?
After this enlightening conversation where coaches explained and discussed the vocabulary and their experiences with these words, we reviewed the reflection questions that each of them would complete each week through the study. There were two sections to the reflection- checklist actions and open ended reflection. The checklist actions were as follows:
- Listened deeply, without judgment
- Engaged in honest, empathetic dialogue
- Affirmed and valued the diverse identities, cultural wealth, and lived experiences of the educators
- Actively worked to challenge deficit thinking
- Modeled humility, patience, and courage
- Fostered relationships by decentering ego
- Supported educators in creating student centered learning environments and experiences
- Celebrated moments of vulnerability, growth, and joy
There were then some open ended questions where coaches could respond to one or all or somewhere in the middle.
- Which radical love action felt most impactful in your coaching this week? Why?
- What challenges did you encounter in practicing radical love? How did you respond to the challenges?
- How did you show unconditional positive regard for self, colleagues, and students this week?
- In what ways did you recognize and celebrate cultural wealth/educators’ assets and strengths in your coaching interactions?
I shared with each coach a laminated version of the reflection tool that was helpful for the coaches to keep the components of radical love in the front of their mind through the week.
As we closed out the session, participants seemed excited about where we were heading although the pathway wasn’t super clear yet. I needed to read their reflections and plan for what they needed, while also keeping the focus on radical love and how to utilize radical love within coaching.
lizzie fortin 