Building Community Through A Social Contract
One of the first things my students do each school year is create a Social Contract as part of our Capturing Kids’ Hearts framework. Instead of beginning the year with a list of classroom rules, we begin by talking about relationships. We discuss how we want to be treated, how we want others to treat us, and what kind of classroom community we want to build together. Students generate the expectations, and because they own them, they are more likely to hold themselves and one another accountable throughout the year.
As I participated in Rod Ferguson’s seminar, I realized this process closely mirrors the work of many of the movements we studied. Organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Freedom Schools, and the Young Lords did not simply gather people together. They established shared values, collective responsibilities, and common goals that guided how members worked together. Their movements were successful because they understood that community does not happen by accident. It must be built intentionally.
This curriculum extends our classroom Social Contract by asking students to identify a set of nonnegotiables that will guide our work together throughout the unit. Rather than focusing only on classroom behavior, students will consider the values that create spaces where everyone feels safe enough to learn, ask questions, disagree respectfully, and share their voices.
Students begin by discussing questions such as:
What helps people feel like they belong?
What makes it safe to share your ideas?
How should we treat someone whose opinion is different from ours?
What responsibilities do we have to one another?
What kind of classroom do we want to build together?
From those conversations, students develop a list of classroom nonnegotiables. While every class creates its own agreement, many of the same ideas usually emerge.
Our nonnegotiables might include:
We listen to understand before we respond.
We disagree with ideas, not people.
We respect every language, culture, and lived experience.
We encourage one another instead of tearing each other down.
We ask questions without fear of embarrassment.
We allow everyone to be heard.
We support our thinking with evidence.
We own our words and our actions.
We speak up when something is unfair.
We leave people better than we found them.
Unlike a set of classroom rules posted on the wall and forgotten, our Social Contract is a living document. As our classroom community grows and new situations arise, students have opportunities to revisit, reflect on, and amend it when necessary. If we discover that an expectation is missing or that our community needs something different to continue growing, we discuss those changes together and revise our agreement. This process teaches students that strong communities are built through reflection, collaboration, and shared responsibility. Just as the movements we study evolved to meet new challenges, our classroom community continues to grow throughout the year.
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