The Courage Way®:
Growing a school culture of trust, collaboration & integrity
In 2025, Diocesan School for Girls, Auckland offered this Courage & Renewal® pilot program of personal and shared reflective practice to a group of fifteen teachers drawn from across the primary and secondary campuses. The program comprised a series of 3 x one-day retreats - one per term spread over three terms.
The feedback from the teachers was so overwhelmingly positive, the school is offering the program again in 2026 to a new group of teachers.
Here's what the teachers had to say about their experience ....
The feedback from the teachers was so overwhelmingly positive, the school is offering the program again in 2026 to a new group of teachers.
Here's what the teachers had to say about their experience ....
Based on the work of Parker J. Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life, this program is designed to strengthen personal and collegial well-being and resilience, and to help grow high-trust, collaborative school cultures.
Programme Format:
The program is based on the Circle of Trust® approach developed by Parker Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal.
It's important to note that Courage & Renewal programs do not follow a set curriculum. Facilitators design their own programs for specific audiences and purposes. This program is specifically designed to support teachers’ personal and collegial well-being. It uses poetry, metaphor, music, art and other evocative media as creative starting points for personal and shared reflective practice.
Over the course of this three-term program, participants cover the following themes:
1. Wholeness & integrity:
Growing self-awareness, recognising personal strengths and limits, reconnecting with one’s values and to the things that give meaning to one’s life.
2. Trust & trustworthy space
Trust is one of the keys to well-being. At its heart is one’s own self-awareness and emotional intelligence, which are necessary to grow and sustain trustworthy relationships.
3. Exploring paradox, complexity & conflict
When we grow our capacity to hold the tension of complexity and uncertainty, while remaining open to possibility, we are better able to navigate and find creative solutions to life's complex and challenging situations.
4. Reflective practice in community
True reflective practice includes paying attention to both our inner and collegial lives - our goals and dreams, our fears, our intuition and imagination, as well as our practices and experiences. Reflective practice is enriched by the mirroring of trustworthy companions who help us see ourselves more clearly. This is a hallmark of the Courage & Renewal approach.
5. Mindful listening & asking deeper questions
Participants will develop their capacity for mindful listening and asking deeper questions, both practices that are vital for authentic leadership and trustworthy relationships.
The principles and practices experienced by the teachers can also be applied in their classroom and collegial settings to help develop high-trust and collaborative cultures.
These programs are designed as retreats, not workshops. We use the term ‘retreat’ not as escape or withdrawal, but as engagement at a deeper level with teachers’ lives and the work they do.
While the program does not explicitly set out to change classroom practice, the personal development of teacher participants is likely to improve their classroom practice in significant ways, and it is likely that students will tangibly benefit from these changes.
Programme Format:
The program is based on the Circle of Trust® approach developed by Parker Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal.
It's important to note that Courage & Renewal programs do not follow a set curriculum. Facilitators design their own programs for specific audiences and purposes. This program is specifically designed to support teachers’ personal and collegial well-being. It uses poetry, metaphor, music, art and other evocative media as creative starting points for personal and shared reflective practice.
Over the course of this three-term program, participants cover the following themes:
1. Wholeness & integrity:
Growing self-awareness, recognising personal strengths and limits, reconnecting with one’s values and to the things that give meaning to one’s life.
2. Trust & trustworthy space
Trust is one of the keys to well-being. At its heart is one’s own self-awareness and emotional intelligence, which are necessary to grow and sustain trustworthy relationships.
3. Exploring paradox, complexity & conflict
When we grow our capacity to hold the tension of complexity and uncertainty, while remaining open to possibility, we are better able to navigate and find creative solutions to life's complex and challenging situations.
4. Reflective practice in community
True reflective practice includes paying attention to both our inner and collegial lives - our goals and dreams, our fears, our intuition and imagination, as well as our practices and experiences. Reflective practice is enriched by the mirroring of trustworthy companions who help us see ourselves more clearly. This is a hallmark of the Courage & Renewal approach.
5. Mindful listening & asking deeper questions
Participants will develop their capacity for mindful listening and asking deeper questions, both practices that are vital for authentic leadership and trustworthy relationships.
The principles and practices experienced by the teachers can also be applied in their classroom and collegial settings to help develop high-trust and collaborative cultures.
These programs are designed as retreats, not workshops. We use the term ‘retreat’ not as escape or withdrawal, but as engagement at a deeper level with teachers’ lives and the work they do.
While the program does not explicitly set out to change classroom practice, the personal development of teacher participants is likely to improve their classroom practice in significant ways, and it is likely that students will tangibly benefit from these changes.