Why does psychological safety matter to us?
During a recent course with the Principals’ Training Center, our small "fireside" discussion began with a simple question: What were you like as a student? As each of us reflected on our school experiences, it quickly became clear that our answers revealed far more than childhood memories.
Iyabo: When it was my turn to share, I described myself as a quiet, reserved student who dreaded being asked questions, especially through cold calling. I was consistently placed in the "red group," the low ability group, across subjects and grew up believing I simply wasn't smart. My heart raced whenever it was time for choral reading, group work, or presentations. Everything changed in Year 5 when Mr. Morgan, a tall Jamaican teacher, became my teacher. Through his unwavering belief in me, he helped build my confidence as a reader, writer, and mathematician. He embedded practices like books, images, and songs where I saw my identity represented in a positive way. They were subtle, but I saw them, and I appreciated them.
Elizabeth: I grew up in a bilingual home with immigrant parents in a culturally and racially homogeneous community. I rarely saw myself reflected around me. The intersecting aspects of my identity shaped how I saw the world, often in ways that were invisible to others. Belonging, at times, meant being tolerated rather than embraced. With questions from my peers like, “What are you?” or “Where are you really from?” I began to make myself smaller, learning how to fit in rather than feeling fully invited to show up. At the time, I was unable to describe what I was experiencing because I didn’t have the language or vocabulary, and I learned early on how easily differences are overlooked when inclusion is not intentional. I now know that this emotional isolation created a state of constant, quiet anxiety.
As the conversation continued around the “campfire,” it became evident that, for many of us, that lack of safety interfered with our ability to thrive. In fact, psychological safety is a prerequisite for learning, and marginalized students are particularly vulnerable to the subtle environmental threats that undermine it. As we enter the 2026-2027 school year, we want to empower educators by sharing the research that shows why learning requires a foundation of trust, along with practical "next-day" strategies to help establish an inclusive culture where all students can thrive.
Laying the Foundations: The First Six Weeks
Patrick, Turner, Meyer, and Midgley (2003) found that teachers who established respectful, supportive classroom environments during the first days of school promoted greater student participation and reduced students' tendency to avoid challenging learning tasks. When students know what to expect, they are better able to focus their attention and cognitive resources on learning rather than navigating ambiguity. Their research suggests that the psychological environment created at the beginning of the year lays the foundation for a classroom culture where students feel confident to engage, take risks, and learn. Predictable routines improve classroom management and simultaneously reduce uncertainty.
To reduce anxiety and support learning, our instructional frameworks should prioritize predictability. The First Six Weeks of School from Responsive Classroom recommends that the first six weeks of school are a critical period for establishing the routines, expectations, trust, and classroom culture that underpin successful learning. They describe this period as particularly important for intentionally teaching, modeling, practicing, and reinforcing routines until they become embedded in the daily life of the classroom. These routines create a predictable environment where students feel safe, develop trust in their teacher and peers, and understand what is expected of them.
Try This Tomorrow
Greet every student by name at the door. A personal welcome communicates, "You belong here."
Co-create classroom agreements. Involve students in defining what respect, kindness, and responsibility looks like, feels like, and sounds like. Agreements should be consistent with your school’s values. This process builds a sense of belonging and purpose.
Make one positive connection home. Send a positive email or make a phone call during the first few weeks to establish strong partnerships with families.
Set up the space. Display books that reflect your students’ diverse identities and languages.
Build connection through identity centered activities. Provide structured opportunities for students to speak about themselves.
The Power of Rituals: Consistency Creates Safety, Belonging, and Independence
Effective classrooms are built on purposeful routines and explicitly taught expectations. When students know what is expected of them, they are more likely to succeed. Rather than assuming students know how to behave, effective teachers explicitly teach, model, practice, and reinforce classroom routines until they become automatic. This reduces uncertainty, increases students' sense of psychological safety, and allows them to focus their cognitive energy on learning rather than figuring out what to do next. It is important to connect this with the behavioral expectations so that there is consistency across the school. All adults should be using the same terminology when it comes to expectations so that students are hearing the same thing. Students are far more likely to meet expectations when every adult consistently reinforces the same routines, language, and standards. It takes a village to create a positive school culture. This collective responsibility extends beyond classroom teachers to specialist teachers, teaching assistants, support staff, and the leadership team. Consistency across adults creates predictability, trust, and a sense of psychological safety, allowing students to thrive.
Research from Simonsen et al. (2008) suggests that students are more likely to meet expectations when those expectations are clear, positively stated, consistently reinforced, and embedded into daily classroom routines. Similarly, Patrick et al. (2003) found that classrooms characterized by supportive relationships, clear expectations, and consistent practices established during the opening days of school created psychological environments where students were more willing to engage in learning and less likely to avoid challenging tasks.
Effective classroom practices therefore do not rely on repeated correction; they rely on proactive instruction. Just as we explicitly teach reading and mathematics, we must also explicitly teach behavioral expectations, transitions, collaborative learning routines, and restorative practices. When every classroom consistently implements these routines, students experience greater belonging, increased independence, fewer behavioral disruptions, and more time engaged in meaningful learning.
Try This Tomorrow
Explicitly teach one classroom routine. Model and practice the routine, provide constructive feedback, and repeat this process until it becomes automatic. Practice these routines throughout the school year.
Assign meaningful classroom jobs. Giving every student a role promotes responsibility, agency, and a sense of contribution to the classroom community.
Build opportunities for students to collaborate. Use partner talk, community circles, morning meetings, and problem-solving tasks to strengthen relationships.
Use Closing Circles. Ask students, "What helped you learn today?" or "When did you feel most connected?" or "What might you do better tomorrow?"
Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors
Iyabo: Remember when I was talking about Mr. Morgan making classroom practices relatable? Looking back, I now recognize that he intentionally created what Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop describes as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. By making learning relatable, accessible, and meaningful, he transformed not only my experience of school but also the educator I would later become.
When students see their identities reflected in the curriculum, they receive a powerful message: You belong here. Mirrors are when students see themselves reflect in the curriculum. They see their identities and culture in what they are learning, validating and affirming their experiences. This creates a sense of belonging to the larger community and strengthens their sense of self.
Elizabeth: I think back to a poetry unit where my class explored Amanda Gorman’s work as a mentor text, studying both her written craft and her performance as an artist. I still remember the expression of surprise and affirmation on a student’s face when she learned that Amanda Gorman also has a stutter, exclaiming “just like me!” This connection showed her that her neurodiversity is a source of pride, inspiring her to imagine herself on stage one day. It reminded me of the saying, “You can’t be what you can’t see."
The windows in the curriculum allow students to get a glimpse into the lives of others. The windows in our classroom are what build our empathy for others, open our minds, and widen our perspectives. They challenge students to think beyond the scope of their own experiences and understand that what I experience is not what others experience. Windows debunk stereotypes and challenge bias.
Sliding glass doors are the opportunity to step into each other's worlds, requiring deeper reflection to consider the possible ways of becoming. Similar to the windows of our practice as educators, sliding glass doors give space for empathy building and an opportunity to imagine what is possible in the future by actively connecting and engaging with each other.
Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors are intentional choices that educators make in their choices of learning environment, curricular resources, and the language used. The integration of all three is powerful for students to develop their sense of belonging beyond the walls of their classroom. More than that, it’s a celebration of the diversity that adds depth and richness to a learning community. When students are seen and affirmed, their brains tell them they are safe, creating the ideal conditions for learning (https://www.tandembayarea.org/).
Plan for it:
Choose one mentor text that reflects the identities, cultures, or lived experiences of your students. Ask yourself: Who sees themselves in this story? Which stories are seldom represented?
Use a Visible Thinking Routine such as Circle of Viewpoints. Invite students to consider a topic from multiple perspectives and build empathy.
Incorporate multiple voices and perspectives. Review tomorrow's lesson and ask whose voices are present, and whose might be missing, particularly those from historically marginalised communities.
Provide multiple ways for students to demonstrate their learning. Allow students to choose whether they write, draw, speak, create, or perform their understanding.
Plan one collaborative learning experience. Design an activity where students learn with and from one another, valuing the diverse experiences and perspectives within the classroom.
Creating psychologically safe classrooms requires both systemic support and intentional daily practices. Building relationships is an investment in academic success. Fortunately, there is a wealth of research, resources, and practical strategies to help educators make these shifts.
Iyabo: Looking back, I realize Mr. Morgan probably never knew the impact he had on my life. He wasn't just teaching literacy or mathematics. He was teaching me that I belonged, that I was capable, and that my voice mattered. As a Dean of Students, I often meet students after they have been referred for behavioral or social-emotional concerns. At times, I find myself asking the question: What conditions existed before this moment? I have learned that many challenges can be prevented when students feel safe, known, and valued from the very beginning. The investment in that feeling of safety and belonging is where learning truly begins.
Elizabeth: It wasn’t until adulthood that I understood the complexity of my identity. A classroom without representation can make a child feel invisible. As an educator, I intentionally design routines that foster connection and provide my students with the safety to show up as their authentic selves. As a leader, I embed reflection and planning practices with my team to account for intentional inclusion and equitable practices in our instructional design. We curate our learning environments so that every student feels welcome and safe to learn because of who they are as they are.
Ultimately, we realized how our stories shared a common thread. We learned best when we felt safe, seen, and believed in. Our communities have the potential to be a learning space in which diversity can enrich and add depth to who we are and how we shape the world. Creating a psychologically safe learning environment is, therefore, an intentional act, not something left to chance. As educators in international schools, we understand it is even more important. What is one intentional change you can make tomorrow that will help every student feel seen, safe, and ready to learn?
Dive Deeper Resources
References
Hammond, Z. (2015) Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Patrick, H., Turner, J.C., Meyer, D.K. and Midgley, C. (2003) 'How teachers establish psychological environments during the first days of school: Associations with avoidance in mathematics', Teachers College Record, 105(8), pp. 1521–1558. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9620.00299
Responsive Classroom (n.d.) The First Six Weeks of School. Available at: https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/the-first-six-weeks-of-school/ (Accessed: 15 July 2026).
Simonsen, B., Fairbanks, S., Briesch, A., Myers, D. and Sugai, G. (2008) 'Evidence-based practices in classroom management: Considerations for research to practice', Education and Treatment of Children, 31(3), pp. 351–380. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1353/etc.0.0007
Iyabo Tinubu is the Dean of Students at the International School of Beijing and an experienced international educator with over a decade of teaching and leadership experience across London, Singapore, Berlin, and Beijing. Passionate about restorative practices, culturally responsive teaching, and student belonging, she works alongside students, teachers, and families to create psychologically safe, inclusive learning environments where every learner can thrive.
Elizabeth Palathra is a primary team leader and Grade 4 homeroom teacher at Zurich International School. Raised in New York in a South Asian family, Elizabeth has taught since 2010, with professional experience in the United States, Germany, and Switzerland. She began her career as a learning support teacher in Washington, DC, where she advocated for students with diverse learning needs. As a collaborative leader, Elizabeth focuses on building strong, empathetic relationships, and establishing an inclusive culture for learning.
