What Is It About Tribes?

This book, researched and written by Bonnie Benard, is an in-depth response to questions that more and more people, concerned today about improving the quality of education, have been asking. In one way or another many have been inquiring, "What is it about the process of "Tribes" that makes it work so well in so many schools, cultures and countries? What is it that helps all kinds of kids finally love learning and achieve? What is it that makes teaching easier and more enjoyable for teachers?" We knew that there was only one person who could help us to respond by documenting the efficacy of the approach underlying the process known simply as "Tribes" or formally as Tribes Learning Communities®. Of course, we called upon Bonnie Benard of West Ed, who with her amazing contextual skills brought hundreds of research studies and literature references into enlightening coherence. It is our hope that readers will discover why and how implementing the core components of the process of Tribes transforms people, classrooms and schools – not because the approach is a curriculum to be taught or a program to be replicated – but because it is an on-going student-centered active-learning process that everyone in a school lives daily and owns. This book also will prove to be invaluable in the writing of grants, accessing other resources, designing topical parent, community and district programs. More than all, we hope as you deepen your understanding of the transformational process, you will use it in endless ways to enhance belonging, student motivation, competence and meaningful learning. Keep in mind the advice that experienced Tribes teachers often tell new teachers…. "Trust the Process – It works." Jeanne Gibbs, Developer Tribes Learning Communities

Bonnie Benard is a nationally- and internationally-known figure in the field of prevention and youth development theory, policy, and practice, particularly for introducing and conceptualizing resiliency theory and application in her 1991 monograph, Fostering Resiliency in Kids: Protective Factors in the Family, School, and Community. She holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work and is currently a Senior Program Associate with the Health & Human Development Program at WestEd’s Oakland, California office. In this capacity, she has led the development of a statewide resilience and youth development assessment for the California Department of Education of the protective factors in students' families, schools, communities, and peer groups. Her most recent publication, Resiliency: What We Have Learned (2004), synthesizes a decade and more of resiliency research and describes what application of the research looks like in our most successful efforts to support young people.