Creating Community Agreements

If cultivating community in the classroom is important to you, one approach to doing so is to work with your students to create a Community Agreement. A Community Agreement is a set of principles that guide how members of a group aspire to work together. Establishing collective ground rules at the start of the semester can help call attention to your expectations and encourage students to engage thoughtfully with one another. The creation process gives students agency and can inspire a shared sense of responsibility for the success of class discussions. Such agreements can be crucial in classes that include difficult material.

Drafting the agreement:

• You might use a class session early in the semester to brainstorm ground rules as a group. Begin by offering your reasons for wanting a Community Agreement. How does it relate to your course goals? Why is the creation of a classroom community important to you?
• To get started drafting the agreement, you might ask students to work in pairs or small groups to define “engagement” or to list characteristics of good and bad discussions. You might ask them to envision and describe their ideal classroom environment. Rather than start from scratch, you might have students read and respond to other examples of Community Agreements, such as the one we offer below. Ask them what they would revise, excise, or add.
• As you generate the tenets of your agreement, gather students’ ideas on the whiteboard and add the premises that are most important to you. Take time to refine the agreement as a group.
• It is important to emphasize that a Community Agreement does not—and should not—prevent the conflict that might arise from the presentation of differing ideas and opinions. The best Community Agreements offer ways of navigating, rather than avoiding, dissent and discomfort.

Using the agreement:

• Once you have established your Community Agreement, encourage students to refer to it in class (and model doing so yourself). You might record your agreement on a large piece of paper that you carry to class or post it on your course’s Canvas page. You can remind students of it at the start of class sessions by including it on a slide in the day’s deck.
• You might treat it as a living document and occasionally revisit it as a group for edits or additions.

Sample agreement:

Below are examples of discussion guidelines that might be included in a Community Agreement. Feel free to adjust them based on your teaching approach and subject matter. Remember, there is no one right set of guidelines.

• Be prepared. Come to class having done the assigned work so that you may fully participate.
• Be present. Stay focused on the discussion and avoid the distraction of cell phones, emails, or side conversations.
• Listen carefully and listen intently. Listen to others’ insights not solely for the sake of responding or critiquing, but also for the sake of encountering another perspective, experience, or idea.
• Critique ideas, not people. Assume the good faith of your classmates, and treat the classroom as a space of learning and growth.
• Recognize intent, acknowledge impact. Point out when a comment hurts or offends you and briefly explain why. If you say something that hurts or offends someone else, take responsibility and learn from it.
• Agree to disagree–but stay engaged. Class conversations are not necessarily going to change minds, but they should present different perspectives. The aim is not for everyone to agree, but to ensure everyone can express their point of view.
• Know that it is possible to pause. If a conversation gets heated to the point of being unproductive, anyone in class is free to call for a break, during which the group might do some private writing on the topic before deciding how to proceed.
• “Stories stay, lessons leave.” Any personal stories shared in class should remain between members of the classroom community.
• Share the mic. Be aware of your “airtime.” If you tend to speak frequently, be sure to leave room for others to be heard. If you are on the quieter side, challenge yourself to speak up.
• Avoid generalizations about identity groups (even when you’re included in them). Speak for yourself, not others by locating your contributions with “I…” or “It has been my experience…” When a point is based on research or evidence, please share the source. Do not expect others to speak for their identity groups.

Additional resources:

Arao, Brian and Kristi Clemens. “From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces: A New Way to Frame Dialogue Around Diversity and Social Justice.” The Art of Effective Facilitation, edited by Lisa M. Landreman, Routledge, 2013, 135-150.

Fernández, Jesica Siham. “Creating Classroom Community Agreements,” Inside Higher Ed, June 14, 2023.