2: The Regenerative Process

This chapter describes how the Regenerative Process was developed, tested, and used in educational spaces from PK-12 to higher education. It describes how the Regenerative Process can be used with an individual or with groups of people to reflect on an experience of disruption, crises, or significant change. The purpose of the Regenerative Process will be explained with examples of how to create a space for participants to be in community with one another, to share their experiences, and to reclaim their collective humanity with identified actions toward working for/with equity to support their school communities.

During my 20 years as a public school leader in education and the last seven years as a Clinical Associate Professor teaching educational leadership, I have never experienced, witnessed, or supported leaders in such a painful and disruptive time in education. Educational leaders have endured relentless change, hyper-disruption, and human resources challenges at every level of the education system. I heard and observed gaps between what upper level organizational leaders espoused and what they were doing or not doing to support their school-level leaders. I heard from school leaders about the lack of communication, the resulting confusion, the disregard for relationships and equity, and the utter dysfunction of their organizational systems. I heard how they and their students, teachers, and families were all suffering from collective trauma, physically, mentally, and emotionally with no relief or process to share their experiences.