Individual Perceptions and Experiences

Twelve statements were presented to community members relating to their individual perspectives and experiences with Trinity. Community members were asked to respond with the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the statements. Items were randomly sorted by survey respondent to avoid ordering bias.

1. Trinity students respectfully express a diversity of viewpoints while engaged in school activities outside of the classroom.

2. Trinity students can respectfully express a diversity of viewpoints while engaged in classroom activities.

3. Trinity is tolerant and welcoming of both conservative and liberal ideas and beliefs.

4. Trinity students are taught how to productively engage in discussion among differing viewpoints.

5. Trinity students understand the impact of their behaviors, beliefs, and statements on others.

6. Trinity faculty create socially and emotionally safe environments in their classrooms for students.

7. The curriculum at Trinity allows for divergent thoughts and perspectives when presented respectfully.

8. The current environment at Trinity fosters open inquiry in academic settings.

9. Students are exposed to competing arguments and multiple perspectives in classroom discussions, materials and activities.

10. The school provides multiple opportunities that help students understand how their viewpoints differ from one another.

11. Teachers encourage students to be open and eager to explore new ideas.

12. Teachers allow time and space for students to ask questions when an understanding or viewpoint is different from others.

The range of agreement with these statements spanned the entire possible range. Four community members strongly disagreed with each statement and twelve community members strongly agreed with each statement. The distribution of perceptions and experiences was roughly normally distributed, with most community members falling in the ‘neutral’ to ‘agree’ range.

Community members agreed most often with the following two statements:

● Teachers encourage students to be open and eager to explore new ideas (72% agreed), and;

● Trinity faculty create socially and emotionally safe environments in their classrooms for students (70% agreed).

There was one item the community disagreed with significantly more so than the other eleven items:

● Trinity is tolerant and welcoming of both conservative and liberal ideas and beliefs (35% agreed).

An “I don’t know” option was provided in addition to the agreement scale (these responses are excluded from the calculation of total scores). While most of the community was able to respond to each statement, there were two statements where one out of five community members responded “I don’t know.” These areas are opportunities for Trinity to provide additional communication.

● Trinity students respectfully express a diversity of viewpoints while engaged in school activities outside of the classroom, and;

● Teachers allow time and space for students to ask questions when an understanding or viewpoint is different from others.

In most cases, faculty/staff agree with these statements significantly more than students and parents; students agree more often than parents and less than faculty/staff. One exception to this pattern corresponds to parents/caregivers agreeing significantly more than faculty/staff and students with the statement, “Trinity students understand the impact of their behaviors, beliefs, and statements on others.”

For the most part, lower and middle school parents/caregivers and faculty/staff agree with these statements more than upper school community members. Adults in the administration and those with ties to multiple divisions have the least favorable view on these topics.

Middle and upper school students somewhat agree that, “the current environment at Trinity fosters open inquiry in academic settings,” and, “Teachers encourage students to be open and eager to explore new ideas.” For all other items, upper school students are less likely to agree compared to middle school students.

Community members, regardless of gender, hold similar views in regard to these statements, with three exceptions. Nonbinary community members agree significantly more than female and male community members, and female community members agree significantly more than male community members.

Community members who identify as Middle Eastern are more likely to disagree with these statements, especially for the following:

● Trinity is tolerant and welcoming of both conservative and liberal ideas and beliefs (58% of Middle Eastern community members disagree)

● Trinity students are taught how to productively engage in discussion among differing viewpoints (50% of Middle Eastern community members disagree).

For the most part, community members who identify as a person of color agree more with these statements, with one exception. People of color agreed less strongly with, “Trinity students understand the impact of their behaviors, beliefs, and statements on others,” (61% of POC agree, compared to 67% of non-POC). Of note is that community members who identify as a person of color are more likely to agree that, “Trinity is tolerant and welcoming of both conservative and liberal ideas and beliefs.”

Students and classroom teachers were also given the opportunity to provide open-ended comments about the instructional practices at Trinity. The prompts were:

1. (Classroom teachers) Would you be interested in sharing one or two examples of instructional practices that you have found particularly helpful in fostering civil dialogue across diverse and divergent points of view?

2. (Students) Would you be interested in sharing one or two examples of how a teacher has fostered civil dialogue across diverse and divergent points of view in the classroom?

Across all three divisions, faculty offered a variety of instructional practices that have helped to 1) explicitly teach students how to engage respectfully in civil dialogue and 2) create classroom environments that allow students to consider divergent perspectives.

In the Lower School, faculty create routines and set norms/expectations in their classrooms for group discussions. Some faculty model how to engage in civil discourse by introducing specific language and norms for students to use when confirming or refuting statements made by classmates. Students are encouraged to allow classmates to speak uninterrupted, sometimes with the aid of a “talking stick”. One faculty member shared that practicing civil discourse and embracing differences of opinions is taught by consistently creating low stakes opportunities for students to engage with each other and to express their unique perspectives on a variety of topics.

Lower School faculty have described inquiry as “the entry point through which children explore and wonder about the world around them”. Open inquiry in the classroom has been facilitated through the use of carefully curated content which helps to present diverse and divergent points of view. Incorporating more inquiry-based projects has also been attributed to students engaging in more open dialogue, particularly in social studies and literacy. Faculty have intentionally selected class material that helps instill a sense of inclusion and belonging so students can see themselves in classroom activities, discussions, and materials.

Middle and Upper School faculty employ many of the same strategies as their lower school colleagues, but have incorporated other age-appropriate approaches. For example, focusing on fact and research versus emotions and opinions has helped students engage in civil discourse across a variety of topics. In addition to selecting course material that presents issues from multiple perspectives, one teacher noted that having students write their responses to various discussion topics and sharing them anonymously with the class offers students a way to hear and respond to a variety of perspectives. Strategies such as reading for points of intersection between ideas and philosophies or using specific questioning protocols has also helped to engage students in considering diverse and divergent viewpoints. For example, one faculty member has moved from asking “what do you think” to “what are arguments on both sides of this issue?” or “How might a person of good will disagree with this position?” Another strategy uses debates to have students develop and argue a perspective, regardless of their beliefs, and then consider the issues in light of their beliefs.

Students in both the Middle and Upper Schools provided a number of ways that teachers have fostered civil dialogue across diverse viewpoints in the classroom. In Middle School, student responses indicated that history and English class discussion are places where teachers encourage discussion and ask students to think about issues from various perspectives. Particularly in Middle School, Community Time was cited as a place where different views are presented and later discussed in the classroom.

Responses from Upper School students were rich with examples that spanned history, English, Community Time, science, and elective courses. Several students noted that being assigned a debate topic forced students to research and understand ideas and perspectives that may not align with their own. One student recounted how taking on different classes or groups of people in different historical periods helped students to view historical concepts in different ways.

Students also noted that class materials in several disciplines were presented from different perspectives, thus allowing students to learn, question, and discuss the merits of different viewpoints. This was the case in a science discussion on bioethics as well as in an elective course on the Supreme Court. Students shared that classes where teachers established the norms for engaging in civil discourse provided the best experiences for having open and honest discussions in which students felt comfortable sharing their viewpoint, even when their views differed from that of their teachers or classmates. Students also found it helpful when teachers acknowledged their own biases when leading classes through discussions on controversial topics. Finally, several students commented on the impact of Community Time speakers. While some students noted that discussions that followed Community Time allowed them to process what they heard in and often provided opportunities for the exchange of ideas and beliefs between students, others noted that the speakers tended to endorse a singular perspective and did not provide students with the opportunity to hear from speakers whose views did not align with a liberal point of view.

In order to gauge the level of comfort that community members had with the expression of a diversity of viewpoints in the Trinity community, the survey asked respondents to provide their level of comfort with a list of 14 topics that are particularly relevant to current events and the national news cycle. Items were randomly sorted by survey respondent to avoid ordering bias.

The majority of community members feel comfortable expressing their viewpoints on most topics, with the exception of affirmative action (only 42% said they would be comfortable expressing their view) . Community members are most comfortable with expressions related to vaccination and climate change (72% comfortable and 76% comfortable, respectively).

Parents/Caregivers, faculty/staff, and students differ significantly in their comfort in expressing their viewpoints on all topics included on the survey. Students feel most comfortable expressing their views on these topics, followed by faculty/staff, followed by parents/caregivers. In many cases, parents/caregivers felt far less comfortable than the internal constituency groups.

When looking across division, no meaningful differences exist within the adult community. In other words, Lower School parents, faculty, and staff hold similar views, on average, when compared to the adult community in the Middle and Upper Schools. There was one exception. Faculty/staff in the lower school are far less likely to feel comfortable expressing their viewpoints on abortion (only 28%, compared to over half of faculty/staff that work in other divisions).

There was only one significant difference between Middle and Upper School students:

● 88% of Middle School students feel comfortable expressing their views on free speech, compared to 75% of Upper School students.

Respondents identifying as male are least comfortable expressing their views on three topics, where those respondents identifying as females are more comfortable and nonbinary/third gender are significantly more comfortable.

Racial Inequality and Gender Identity are the only two topics where there is a significant difference between community members who identify as a person of color and those who do not, where people of color are more comfortable than those who do not identify as a person of color.

For all topics listed on the survey, community members who endorse the educational beliefs related to social justice are more likely to feel comfortable expressing their viewpoints.

Community members who have more favorable perceptions of and experiences with Trinity, as determined by the twelve survey items from the corresponding survey section, are significantly more likely to feel comfortable expressing their viewpoints on these topics.

Having reflected on their individual level of comfort with expressing a viewpoint on current controversial topics, community members were then asked to share their primary reasons for expressing their viewpoints. The survey question included 12 possible reasons to choose from, and community members could also write in an ‘other’ response. Items were randomly sorted by survey respondent to avoid ordering bias.

Community members express their views most often when they “really care about a topic” and least often to “improve how someone sees me,” because they feel they “know more about the topic than others,” or “to show agreement with others.”

For the most part, students, parents, and faculty/staff agree on reasons to express a controversial viewpoint, with two exceptions:

● Students are far more likely to feel “it is important to express my views,” (46%) as compared to faculty/staff (25%) and parents/caregivers (23%).

● Faculty/staff are less likely to express their viewpoint because they “feel others should appreciate and hear my viewpoint,” (7%) as compared to parents/caregivers (14%) and students (19%).

There are no significant differences in the adult community between divisions.

There were four differences between Middle and Upper school students:

● Upper School students are more likely to select, “I really care about the topic,” (54%) compared to Middle School students (38%).

● Middle School students are more likely to select, “I know Trinity is committed to valuing multiple perspectives and viewpoints,” (17%) compared to Upper School students (88%).

● Middle School students are more likely to select, “I want to improve how someone sees me,” (12%) compared to Upper School students (4%).

● Middle School students are more likely to select, “I believe the school climate is open and encouraging of diverse viewpoints,” (16%) compared to Upper School students (8%).

Community members identifying as male are more likely to express a controversial viewpoint because they “think it is important to express their views.” Those who identify as nonbinary/third gender are far less likely to express their viewpoint for this reason.

Community members who identify as female are less likely to express their viewpoint because they, “feel others should appreciate and hear my viewpoint.”

For the most part, racial and ethnic groups do not differ in their reasons for expressing controversial viewpoints, with one exception. Community members who identify as Asian are more likely to share because they “want to share their unique identity or experience;” 36% of Asian community members selected this as a top reason (compared to 22% overall).

Community members who endorse the five educational beliefs related to social justice are more likely to share their controversial viewpoint “because they care about the topic,” and because they “want to educate students about the topic.” These community members also would share because they believe “Trinity is committed to valuing multiple perspectives.”

Not surprisingly, community members who have favorable individual perceptions of and experiences with Trinity’s support of open inquiry and diverse perspectives are more likely to share a controversial viewpoint because they “believe the school climate is open and encouraging of diverse viewpoints,” and they “know Trinity is committed to valuing multiple perspectives.”

12% of the community members who responded to the survey provided a write-in response with an additional reason(s) to express a controversial viewpoint. Selected quotes from these responses are below:

● “educatestaffaboutviewsamongparents.”

● “positivelyinfluenceotherstobetterunderstandanunpopularbelief.”

● “Ithinkit’simportantthatothersrealizetherearedifferentviewsonthetopic.”

● “Ithinkyoushouldshowthatyoushouldstandforwhatyoubelieveevenifit'snotthe fashionablelineofthoughtatthetime.”

● “Iwanttomodelforotherswhomightbeafraid.Iwanttogivecouragetootherpeopleso thattheycanalsoexpressthemselvesandtoshowthatmorepeoplehold"unpopular" opinionsthantheymightimagine.”

● “Theopinionofaparentshouldmatterinthecommunity-widedecision-making.”

● “Tooimportanttoremainsilenteventhoughitwon'tbeaddressedinameaningfulway.”

Community members were lastly asked to share their primary reasons for withholding controversial viewpoints. The survey question included 10 possible reasons to choose from, and community members could also write in an ‘other’ response. Items were randomly sorted by survey respondent to avoid ordering bias. The survey prompt was, “if you held an unpopular or controversial viewpoint, what would be your top reasons for not expressing it at Trinity?”

The top reasons for withholding a controversial viewpoint were that community members would be worried their expression, “would have a negative consequence,” they “don’t want to offend others,” and they believe the, “climate is not open nor encouraging of diverse viewpoints.” Very rarely is, “I don’t want people to know my identity or experience,” a top reason for withholding a viewpoint.

All constituency groups agreed that the top reason to withhold a controversial viewpoint was a worry of a “negative consequence,” there were several differences in other reasons selected. Most notably parents/caregivers are significantly more likely not to share a controversial viewpoint because they believe “the climate is not open nor encouraging” and that there “is no benefit to participating.” Students are far more likely to select, “I don’t know enough about the topic,” and “I don’t want to offend others,” as top choices.

There are no differences in the adult community by division. For students, however, two differences are found.

● Upper School students are more likely to select “the climate is not open nor encouraging of diverse viewpoints, “ (36%) compared to Middle School students (17%).

● Middle School students are more likely to select “I don’t want to offend others,” (56%) compared to Upper School students (41%).

Those who identify as male are significantly more likely to withhold a controversial viewpoint because they believe “the climate is not open nor encouraging,” or they are “worried their expression would have a negative consequence.” Nonbinary/third gender community members are far less likely to withhold because they are worried about negative consequences.

The top reasons to withhold a controversial viewpoint are similar across racial and ethnic groups and between those who identify as a person of color and those who do not.

Community members who strongly endorse the five educational beliefs related to social justice are less likely to select “there is no benefit to participating,” “I believe the climate is not open nor encouraging of diverse viewpoints,” and “worry my expression would have a negative consequence” as their top reasons to withhold a controversial viewpoint. Rather, stronger endorsement of these educational beliefs relates to reasons that include “I don’t know enough about the topic,” “I don’t want people to know my identity or experience,” “I don’t believe it would be appropriate to share,” “I don’t want to disagree with others,” and “I don’t want to offend others.”

Those with more favorable perceptions of and experiences at Trinity are more likely not to share a controversial viewpoint because they “don’t know enough about the topic,” they “don’t believe it would be appropriate to share,” they “don’t want to disagree with others,” and they “don’t want to offend others.” Whereas, community members with less favorable experiences at Trinity are more likely not to share because they believe “the climate is not open nor encouraging of diverse viewpoints,” and they are worried their “expression would have a negative consequence.”

9% of the community members who responded to the survey provided a write-in response with an additional reason(s) not to express a controversial viewpoint. Selected quotes from these responses are below:

● “Changewouldtaketoolongandnotworththeeffort”

● “Evenifyousaywhatyoureallythink,youget15secondsofclassroomattentionanda wholesemesterofyourteacherthinkingdifferentlyofyou.”

● “Flatoutpeoplewouldn'tcare,sowhenImakeapointaboutstructuraldiscriminationand peopledontcare,it'sdisheartening.”

● “Idon'twanttoputteachersoradministratorsagainstmykids.”

● “IthinkitwouldlandondeafearsandIwouldbegaslighted.”

● “Itwouldadverselyaffectmyhardworkingchildrenanditmaycornerthem.”

● “Schoolisnottheplaceforpoliticaldebates.”

In comparing the top reasons that community members provided for expressing a controversial viewpoint to the top reasons provided for not expressing a viewpoint, several interesting findings emerged.

● Those who share because they “think it is important to express their views” are less likely to share when they believe, “there is no benefit to participating.”

● Those who share because they “really care about a topic” are more likely to hold back when they “don’t know enough about the topic” and when they “don’t want to disagree with others.”

● Those who share because they “want to be seen as an active participant” are more likely to hold back when they don’t “want people to know their identity or experience.”

● Those who share because they “believe the school climate is open and encouraging of diverse viewpoints” are more likely to hold back when they don’t “know enough about a topic,” believe sharing would be inappropriate, and “don’t want to offend others”. And, these individuals are less likely to worry that their “expression would have a negative consequence.”

● Those who share because they “want to share their unique identity or experience” are more likely to hold back when they “don’t want friends or colleagues to know how I feel” and “don’t want to offend others.”

● Those who share because they “want to argue against a view they find to be offensive” are more likely to hold back when they “don’t want to disagree with others.”

● Those who share because they “want to improve how someone sees them” are more likely to hold back when they “don't want to disagree with others.”

● Those who share because they believe “Trinity is committed to valuing multiple perspectives and viewpoints” will hold back when they “don’t know enough about the topic,” “when they don’t believe it would be appropriate” to share, and when they “don’t want to offend others.” And, these individuals are less likely to worry that their “expression would have a negative consequence.”

All applicable survey items were analyzed for their ability to influence the overall perception and experience at Trinity, as measured by the twelve items related to open inquiry and diversity of viewpoint. The following items were found to be significant using a stepwise regression analysis.

● The more that a community member holds back their viewpoint because the “climate is not open nor encouraging of diverse viewpoints,” the less favorable their overall experience.

● Community members affiliated with the Upper School have less favorable overall experiences.

● The more that a community member holds back their viewpoint because they worry their “expression would have a negative consequence,” the less favorable their overall experience.

● Parents/Caregivers have less favorable overall experiences.