ABSTRACT
Although a sense of connectedness and caring is a persistent descriptor of education for excellence, urban schools often resist efforts to build structures that promote community. A key question is: What happens in a poor urban school if relationship is placed at the center of teaching and learning? What we discover is that who teachers and students are becomes more connected to learning and, paradoxically, more anxiety-producing for adults. We also discover that meaningful growth can occur in the individual as well as in groups, and that issues of race, typically avoided or buried, emerge organically when skilled interventionists attempt to strengthen relationships and build community. This chapter describes an organizational and professional development model called Family Group, which is reflective of such an intervention. Family Group is an organizational intervention daringly supportive of facing reality in an urban public school setting by encouraging the constructive contemplation of race, poverty, relationships, community building, and education. This case focuses on one element of this intervention: a sophisticated, professional development approach implemented (in an urban high school) for a dedicated group of public high school teachers.
