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Courage in Education: Facing Challenges with Strength, Determination, and Hope

In this new course, learn how courage can boost well-being, help us navigate challenges, and stand up for our beliefs.

Register
Venue/Type: Online
Price: $59.00

Overview

Standing up for what we know our students and schools need is hard.

 

Educators face enormous challenges these days. Disgruntled community members, outdated school policies, relentless workload and time pressures, and students’ growing mental health issues, to name a few. To face these challenges on a daily basis and not succumb to a world-weary sense of grief or Monday-morning dread requires COURAGE.

 

Courage in Education: Facing Challenges with Strength, Determination, and Hope is a new online course designed to inspire courageous action in you and your students—in classrooms, schools, and beyond.

 

Learn from researchers and educators who share how courage can help us to:

  • Face challenges with a sense of clarity, determination, and hope
  • Clarify what really matters so that we can find a steadier, values-based resolve—and even inspire it in our students and colleagues
  • Act on behalf of our truest, most cherished values—values such as love, learning, curiosity, compassion, and justice
  • “Live with heart” and become the people we want to be

 

We hope you will join us as we explore the science of courage, listen to educators’ courage stories, and discover practical strategies for fostering greater courage in ourselves, our colleagues, and our students.

 

 

How this course will benefit students, classrooms, schools… and you!

 

Courage bolsters our well-being.

Courage helps us to navigate social and emotional challenges.

  • Greater courage in adolescents and adults is related to more active use of coping strategies (e.g., seeking social support and engaging in positive problem solving). In other words, ​​the practice of courage helps us to adapt in difficult situations (rather than avoid them)—and to work toward reaching our personal and professional goals.

Courage prepares us to take academic risks.

  • Rather than avoid an assignment, students who engage in “academic courage” learn to persevere through a difficult learning task despite their fear, leading to more positive academic outcomes.

Courage emboldens us to stand up for our beliefs.

  • Courage is related to a willingness to speak up at work. When we have the courage to question the status quo (e.g., norms and policies), we potentially effect change in our institutions.

Courage undergirds authentic leadership and collegial trust.

  • Theorists link courage with authentic leadership and trust-building between leaders and employees. In other words, school leaders who courageously demonstrate openness and vulnerability with their staff help foster a trusting school culture.

Read more about the course and what you’ll learn.

Download a learning packet to share with your community.

Download a free poster for your classroom.

Curriculum & Outcomes

Course Curriculum

The course is designed for busy education professionals. Each module includes a short video (approximately 5-8 minutes long) that provides brief instruction on one aspect of the science of courage, followed by reflection questions. The remainder of each module focuses on educators’ courage stories and practical applications of courage, providing numerous resources for incorporating courage into classrooms and schools. You can decide which video stories, articles, practices, and resources are most relevant and useful to you.

 

The course content will roll out over several weeks:

January 25, 2023

  • Module 1: What is courage?
  • Module 2: What kinds of courage do I want for myself and others?
  • Module 3: Why is courage so valuable right now?

February 8, 2023

  • Module 4: How can I find greater courage as an educator-leader?
  • Module 5: How can I inspire courage in my students?

February 22, 2023

  • Module 6: When should I be (or not be!) courageous?
  • Module 7: How can I draw on courage to navigate ethical dilemmas?

 

Course Features

  • Seven modules, 5-10 hours of learning, depending on engagement with supporting materials
  • Videos on the science of courage by Amy L. Eva, Ph.D. Greater Good Science Center’s Associate Education Director
  • Video clips featuring education professionals’ courage stories and their reflections on using courage-based practices in classrooms and staff meetings
  • Over 25 ready-to-use research-based courage practices for students and the adults who work with them
  • Downloadable slides on the science of courage for classroom use or professional development
  • Downloadable courage journal for use by education professionals and students of all ages
  • Discussion board for sharing courage practices, ideas, and reflections with other educators

 

Course Outcomes

You will:

  • Define courage
  • Understand the benefits of courage for yourself and others
  • Identify and explore different types of courage (e.g., personal vs. general, academic, and moral)
  • Reflect on the role of courage in your personal and professional life
  • Learn about resources and practices that foster courage in both students and education professionals
  • Evaluate the costs and benefits of morally courageous actions in real-world contexts

 

Download a packet about the course.

Logistics & Cost

Who Should Take This Course?

  • Classroom teachers (preK through higher education), paraeducators, and out-of-school-time providers
  • School mental health professionals and counselors
  • School, district, and college-level administrators
  • Educators interested in character development and empowering students to be their best selves

Course Cost

The Greater Good Science Center is funded entirely by donations and grants—we do not receive any financial support from the University of California, Berkeley. However, we are able to offer many of our GGSC resources for free because we charge for some of our courses. We do our best to make our courses and events affordable for everyone but realize that “affordable” can mean vastly different things depending on individual or geographic circumstances. Therefore, we are offering sliding scale rates for this course.

 

We do not ask for income verification; we trust that students will be honest about their financial situation. Please be mindful that if you purchase the course at a lower cost when you can truthfully afford the higher cost, you are limiting access to those who truly need the gift of financial flexibility. It also respects the work we do, and our desire to offer many other free resources to educators.

 

Please choose the rate that best matches your financial situation. If you are not sure which price level is appropriate for your circumstances, we’ve provided some guidance below:

$59 (Base Rate):
This cost reflects the true cost of the course, and is what we would charge all students in the absence of a sliding scale. Please pay this rate if you have access to financial security in the form of income or savings or do not stress about meeting your basic needs. Also, consider whether or not your school or organization can provide financial support for you to access the course.

 

$29 (Reduced Rate):
This cost reflects our acknowledgment that there are people whose economic circumstances would prevent them from having access to this course if expected to pay the full amount. Please pay this rate if you do not currently have financial security and/or regularly feel stress over meeting your or your family’s basic needs. USE THE CODE “COURAGE” AT CHECKOUT TO APPLY THIS RATE

 

Here is a professional development support pack that may also be helpful in gaining organizational funding for our courses.

If the reduced rate is still prohibitive and you need additional support, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at ggsceducation@berkeley.edu.

Acknowledgement to Alexis J. Cunningfolk for guidance around sliding scale fee language.

If you would like to enroll all of the educators (or a large number of educators) from your school, please reach out to us at ggsceducation@berkeley.edu to discuss additional payment options.

 

 

Instructors & Speakers

Amy Eva

Amy L. Eva, Ph.D.

Amy L. Eva, Ph.D., is the associate education director at the Greater Good Science Center. During her twelve-year tenure as a teacher educator, she became particularly passionate about educator resilience and self-care, and she loves to conduct workshops that focus on teacher well-being. More about Amy Eva.

Try Courage Practices

A tabby cat sitting on wooden floor and looking at the running (or jumping) tiger sketched (chalk drawing) on the wall.

Courage Creatures
Students learn about courage and see themselves as courageous by drawing their own courage creature and sharing it with others.
Craft envelope filled with autumn maple leaves

Courage Blooms
Celebrate acts of courage throughout the school year and scaffold ways in which students can choose to act with courage.
Low angle of a group of diverse teenage girls standing together in a circle with their fists together in an act of courage

Identifying Acts of Courage
Students come up with ideas about what courage is, learn a scholarly definition of courage, reflect on courageous acts they have witnessed, and consider why they think courage is important.
Serious woman discusses something difficult during a group meeting.

Vulnerable and Courageous
Staff members watch a video clip about courage and vulnerability, reflect on situations at work that make them feel vulnerable, and consider how to courageously embrace their own vulnerabilities.
Student courageously standing up for what's right.

Developing the Courage to Speak Up
Students use a “Courage to Speak Up” heuristic (a reflection tool) to raise their awareness of how they respond to prejudice—and to help them to develop the capacity to address moments of prejudice in an academic setting.
Girl wearing black hoodie bullying girl at schoolyard

The Bystander’s Dilemma: What Does Courage Look Like?
Students examine their role as a bystander in a fictional bullying scenario that involves their friends. They identify their emotions, reflect on their values, and consider courageous action as they decide how they would respond in this situation.
Teenage girl wearing a helmet zipping on a line in forest.

Courage Challenge
Students take on a courage challenge and share their experience with their classmates, crafting a chain of courageous acts that inspire them to be honest, zesty, persevering, and brave.
Help students understand that mistakes are important for learning and growing our intelligence

Crumpled Reminder
Students write down a recent mistake and their feelings about it, and then crumple up the paper. Then they reflect on how their mistakes help them to learn.
Through stories, discussion, and creative presentations about true heroes, students foster their compassion for others and see brave community involvement as an admirable, heroic way of life.

Who Are Your Heroes?
After hearing stories of heroes from the Giraffe Heroes Project, students nominate heroes and discuss the risks they took and whom they helped, cultivating an understanding of what makes a true hero. In small groups, students then creatively present a chosen hero’s story.
Students develop courage by evaluating an idea or proposition and taking a stance on it.

Compass Points
Students evaluate an idea or proposition, share their opinions with other students, and take a stance on the matter.
Students think about the factors that encourage and discourage people to act when they confront suffering or injustice.

From Sympathy to Action
Students reflect on readings and engage in discussions about the responsibilities they have to address suffering and injustice in larger society.
Making Values-Informed Decisions

Making Values-Informed Decisions
Staff use reflective questions to assess possibilities, navigate dilemmas, and make the best possible choice to serve the needs of the individual, team, community, and learning environment.
Students hear and share inspiring stories compassionate risk-takers and then develop their own service project.

It's Up to Us to Stick Our Necks Out
Students “hear the story,” “tell the story,” and “be the story,” becoming inspired by everyday heroes, then choose, organize, and carry out a service project to address a problem they care about.
A quick reflection tool to help when you feel defensive or threatened

Affirming Important Values
Rank a list of values in order of importance to you, and then write a brief account of why your #1 value is important to you.
Reminders that Encourage Moral Character Strengths

Reminders that Encourage Moral Character Strengths
Students identify important character strengths for the classroom, create a classroom character strengths board, and write stories of themselves that include the character strengths the classroom has agreed are important.
Help students understand that mistakes are important for learning and growing our intelligence

Crumpled Reminder
Students write down a recent mistake and their feelings about it, and then crumple up the paper. Then they reflect on how their mistakes help them to learn.