Leading Together

  • Research Project

What We Do

Leading Together is two-year study of an intervention designed to enhance collaboration, listening and mindfulness among the adults who work in schools — principals, teachers, specialists and other staff.

Project Info

Project Status: 2012 - 2014

Funding Source: Center for Courage & Renewal Northeast and the UVA Contemplative Sciences Center

Principal Investigator: Sara Rimm-Kaufman

The intervention workshops bring principals and teachers together from various elementary and middle schools to learn strategies and protocols for building and strengthening the adult community. If fully implemented, we expect that engagement in these activities will improve school working conditions and sense of community, thus helping adults be more capable of meeting the diverse academic and social needs of children and youth.  

Pamela Seigle and Chip Wood, both developers of well-known social and emotional learning interventions (Open Circle, Responsive Classroom Approach), created Leading Together based upon work by Parker Palmer, Seigle and Wood’s extensive experience in schools and training in mindfulness-based stress reduction practices.

CASTL's Social Development Lab research team was engaged in research on Leading Together to support the development of the intervention itself and to identify early signs of efficacy. This pilot work was sponsored by the Center for Courage & Renewal Northeast and the UVA Contemplative Sciences Center.

How to Build Trust in Schools [HuffPost]

Related Lab

  • Research Lab

UVA Social Development Lab

The UVA Social Development Lab, directed by Sara Rimm-Kaufman, addresses pressing questions in education science from an interdisciplinary perspective. Learn more at our full website.

UVA Social Development Lab

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