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What Are You Bringing to the Potluck?
How School Leaders Set the Table for a Community of Belonging
What Are You Bringing to the Potluck? offers readers a deeper understanding of how significant a sense of belonging is in schools—and challenges them to set a strong example of how to build respect, and nurture community. By doing so, insightful connections are forged in thoughtful consideration of identities, beliefs, and needs.
Build inclusive schools that enhance attendance and behavior
Author Sheldon L. Eakins dishes up ways to build a school culture where students feel they belong. Through personal stories and practical tools, like the Sense of Belonging Tool, he helps educators tackle attitudes and behaviors that lead to exclusion. He offers leaders a way through their potential fears and the ingredients to create a supportive community, encourage empathy for students from all walks of life, and boost attendance and well-being.
K–12 administrators can use this book to:
- Value and understand the impact of belonging on student beliefs, perceptions, and health
- Revise school policies, mission statements, hiring practices, and budget allocation to foster equitable learning communities
- Create a belonging task force that connects school, students, families, and community members
- Study how a student’s attachment style can impact how they function at school
- Understand how to respect and appreciate differences without belaboring them or tokenizing cultures
Related Topics
Diversity & EquityLeadershipStudent Engagement
Additional Information
“Eakins’s focus on leaving a legacy that matters engages school leaders in a rigorous and deeply meaningful reflection on the ultimate pathway to student success—belonging and voice—and coaches them to be intentional, inspirational role models for the journey. Eakins skillfully guides school leaders through the marriage of professional soul searching and proven strategies that ultimately results in the confidence to put student voice and belonging at the center of every decision and create a powerful culture of belonging and shared leadership for all learners.”
“What Are You Bringing to the Potluck? provides school leaders with practical reflection tools that allow them to take a hard look at current practice. Eakins shows readers how to build in processes and practices that increase the achievement and improve the mental health and well-being of staff and students—all through building in the sense of belonging.”
“In What Are You Bringing to the Potluck?, author Sheldon L. Eakins supports readers in understanding that inclusion is a leadership imperative, and the role that everyone plays in ensuring that all students are seen, valued, and heard. His brilliant potluck metaphor pushes us beyond assimilation toward true belonging. By connecting biases, student mental health, and the dangers of ‘niceness,’ he challenges leaders to measure what matters as we courageously build stronger, more authentic school communities.”
