Developing the capability to bring our mind state under our conscious control gives us choices in how we respond to students, to colleagues and to events as they unfold. In turn, this allows us to bring our best selves to our work leading to deeper engagement and continual improvement.

In all walks of life around 60% of adults are not engaged in their work and this has a cost both to the individual in terms of their wellbeing and to society in terms of goods and services that are not produced.  When 60% of teachers are disengaged then “the services not produced” are deficiencies in the development of our children – and 60% of our children will leave school to become disengaged adults.

To break this cycle is where the Regulating the Red Brain program comes into play through a three-phase process to:

• INVITATION - organise volunteers from the 40% of staff who are engaged into understanding the nature of the disengagement problem and that the solution must involve their willing participation

• INDUCTION - develop the knowledge and capabilities of this group to better regulate their own red brains

• IMPLEMENTATION - identify a small subset who feel passionate about solving the disengagement problem and are willing to work on it over the long-term, facilitate and coach the setting up of a Community of Practice (CoP) sponsored by the principal and aligned to the school’s strategy, and support the CoP in developing and disseminating innovative ways to engage both students and staff, progressively over time and calling on other engaged staff from time to time to take part

The first phase of the program is to recruit volunteers from the 40% of staff who are fully engaged in their work meaning they have confidence in their own abilities, they value the work they do, they strive towards mastery, they know what to do and how to do it, they are not particularly anxious about their work and do not avoid work they need to do.  Such teachers enjoy being teachers and are resilient, bouncing back from setbacks.

This phase immerses these volunteers in an exploration of the problem that teacher disengagement creates for those teachers themselves, their students and their colleagues and how the problem might be progressively resolved.  The Regulating the Red Brain program is introduced as a framework for this group to organise themselves.

There are several key activities in this phase:

• Pre-workshop interviews of a cross-section of participants

• Pre-reading for workshop

• 90-minute workshop

• Preparation for whole school survey to set baseline against which to measure progress

The program is owned by its participants, some of the school’s best teachers, who can determine for themselves if it is worth committing time and energy to move to the next phase.

The second phase of the program is to introduce participants to the main obstacles to full engagement and to the practices which can be developed and used to overcome them.  Most participants will already have good levels of self-management, so this phase is to provide a sound analytical framework, a common language (‘red brain blue brain’) and a systematic approach to further self-development.

There are two parts to this phase of the program: first is an online program of six courses designed to be explored over about one term:

• What is a red brain? - establishing the existence of a red brain – a core obstacle to engagement

• Where does the red brain come from? - having a red brain is not a natural occurrence

• Why does the red brain persist into adulthood? - our capacity to manage the red brain is compromised by our schooling

• Practices to reduce red brain triggering - we can learn to manage our red brain triggering via specific practices

• Extinguishing red brain triggers - we can extinguish triggers by the purposeful use of mindfulness

• Re-framing fixed beliefs - we can re-frame fixed beliefs using Inquiry

As well as the knowledge and practices there is, second, a parallel path of regular ‘small group inquiry’ sessions which deepen trust and connection between participants as well as being a practice to loosen fixed beliefs. Six or more sessions are typical, one for each course. In addition, each two weeks there are online Q&A sessions to share experiences, gain further clarity and consolidate learning.

The third phase of the program is based around the small number of volunteers – the core group including the ‘champion’ who takes a leading role - who have become passionate about resolving the problem of disengagement. They are willing to put in time and energy over a sustained period to solve the problem of disengagement.

The key activities are to set up a Community of Practice, sponsored by the principal (or another senior leader) and aligned to/considered to be a part of, the school’s strategy, and then for the Community of Practice to operate to progressively shift the school’s culture to one of full engagement.

The Community of Practice has three key areas:

1. The Domain – area of shared interest: regulating the red brain, increasing engagement

2. The Community – all staff and students at the school

3. The Practice – to be developed creatively by the core group (and others from time to time) calling on other volunteers as required

Early meetings of the CoP are facilitated to efficiently set up the structure, protocols and documentation necessary to make the CoP effective and sustainable over time, this includes coaching of the champion. Survey tools are available to monitor progress.

Once set up the CoP begins its work. An initial focus on students will likely give quick results and increase the visibility of the program’s central message of engagement.