September/October 2025

Educational Equity: Us and Us, Connecting Through Storytelling

By Maryam Brotine


Pop quiz: What is self-perpetuating and all-consuming?

Social media? Anxiety? Laun­dry? Yes, but not the answer I am looking for.

At the 2022 Joint Annual Con­ference, “self-perpetuating and all-consuming” is how general ses­sion speaker Amanda Ripley defined “high conflict.” She would know, being the author of High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. Ripley shared her observa­tion that humans are very good at coming up with reasons to engage in “us vs. them” conflicts. To break out of the “us vs. them” gridlock, Ripley suggested that we lean into learning about the other person’s perspective, explaining that “almost always, it’s about humiliation, fear, a desire to belong, and status.”

Ripley’s words ring just as true today as they did three years ago.

More than ever, society has hard­ened into “us vs. them” positions, especially within the addictive echo chambers of social media. A 2021 research study of social media plat­forms found that “users online tend to prefer information adhering to their worldviews, ignore dissenting information, and form polarized groups around shared narratives.” Just open the comments section on any social media post, and you’ll see this in action.

One result of this polarization is “othering,” a social process of seeing people not only as different, but as less deserving and not of equal dignity. According to Clint Curle in the article “Us vs. Them: The process of othering,” the othering process can be divided into two steps: 1) categorizing people accord­ing to perceived differences, and 2) identifying that group as inferior and using “us vs. them” mentality to alienate the group.

In The Power of Bridging: how to build a world where we all belong, author and scholar john a. pow­ell explains that othering leads to “breaking,” by which we deny the full stories, complexities, and sometimes the humanity of those we consider “other.” As we become entrenched in our groups, we become mutually averse to and distrustful of each other. This creates anxiety, which then lead to fear — fear that there won’t be enough for my group or that I won’t belong. Fear can easily turn into anger, and anger to hate, and then we can find ourselves on a dark, all-con­suming path.

The challenge we face is to step away from othering and breaking and to move towards “bridging.”

Bridging is a practice that rejects all strict “us vs. them” frameworks and asks people to lead with curiosity and vulnerability. This is akin to what Ripley meant by urging us to lean into learning about the other person’s perspectives. Bridging can occur at all levels, from interpersonal to structural. According to powell’s Othering & Belonging Institute, “to bridge involves two or more individ­uals or groups coming together across acknowledged lines of difference in a way that both affirms their distinct identities and creates a new, more expansive identity.”

In other words, we move away from “us vs. them” and towards “us and us.”

One powerful way to bridge is by connecting with each other through stories. Think about it.

Stories have been passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation since the beginning of time. You don’t need to be a writer or an actor to tell stories. You are enough, you have stories within you.

When you choose to share a story, you share a piece of yourself. And when we listen to each other’s stories, we start to see each other as multi-dimensional instead of reducing each other to flat stereotypes.

For example, let’s say you and I meet for the first time at the Joint Annual Conference and, based on my appearance (short, middle-aged woman wearing a suit) and profession (lawyer — ugh!), you start to tell yourself a story about me. Then you say, “How are you today?” and I respond with “So achy! I really did a number on my tailbone at the skate park yesterday.” Wait — what happened to the story of the stodgy, nerdy lawyer? The story shifts as I become a multi-dimensional person. If we continue to talk, we may discover we have things in common, or not. Either way, we will see each other more. And while we may not be sharing heartfelt stories with each other, it’s a starting point.

We all have the power to create more starting points, too, if we put our phones down and raise our heads. But how? Do we just start talking to strangers? Yes, actually. You’ve done it before. Think about waiting in line at the grocery store. Did you speak to the cashier or to someone else waiting in line, maybe to talk about the weather or the deal on strawberries that was annoyingly only available if you clipped a coupon in the app? Better yet, have you ever received a random compliment from a stranger? If you did, it probably brightened your day and made you feel good. That isn’t the same as tell­ing a deeply involved story, but even these small interactions establish a fleeting connection that builds your bridging and storytelling skills.

You can also explore storytelling in a more formal setting, like IASB staff are doing. This past year, we piloted our own audio storytelling project, modeled after the nonprofit StoryCorps program that is featured weekly on National Public Radio and whose collection of everyday people sharing their stories is archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. We took free online DIY Story­Corps training, practiced interview­ing each other, and then recorded and edited audio interviews to create a staff library of stories. The staff story library is growing and will soon contain stories from the IASB Board of Directors.

Our storytelling project con­tinues at the Equity Immersion 2025, where this year’s theme is The Power of Us: Storytelling for Just and Joyful Schools. It will feature dynamic workshops designed to help attendees learn how to bring ethical storytelling practices to their class­rooms, districts, and communities. Participants will also learn how to investigate their district data and use a Storytelling for Social Justice framework to go beyond stereotypi­cal stories and uncover the concealed stories within the data. The event will even have a storytelling booth available for audio interviews for those who are ready to tell their edu­cation and board service stories.

What stories live within you? What is your “why” for board ser­vice? When you’re ready to share your story, come find me (see description above). We need the connection of storytelling — to each other and to our communities — to serve K-12 education in Illinois. 
 

Maryam Brotine, J.D., is Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Services and Associate General Counsel for IASB. Resources associated with this column are available at iasb.com/Journal.