How RIASEC Helps Teachers Take Relationships to the Next Level

If you speak to anyone who is currently working in schools, they will readily tell you that the challenges they were facing prior to 2020 were either exacerbated or were brought to the forefront in painfully evident ways with the COVID-19 pandemic.? Whether it is the deepening socioeconomic inequities or the significant toll on our children’s mental health, very few of our children or the hard working adults tasked with educating them have gone unscathed over the past several years.? While there is no singular panacea as we go forward, we do know that there are fundamental approaches that have proven to be helpful regardless of educational trends and arguably are as relevant as ever. One such practice is nurturing relationship-centered schools and our state has led the way in this, in many regards, whether it is through the prioritization of initiatives such as the California Community Schools Partnership Program or the unprecedented investments in school counseling .?

While these efforts statewide are significant and deserve to be acknowledged, any teacher will tell you that much of the relationship building that happens in their classrooms is not contingent upon policy decisions made in Sacramento.? For many educators, teaching is a calling and those who are driven to pass on love, resilience, and wisdom to the next generation are perpetually looking for ways to forge deeper relationships with their students so that students feel welcomed, acknowledged, and connected to their school communities.??

During my recent World of Work (WoW) school tours in Cajon Valley Union School District, elementary teachers and coaches, who understand the importance of relationships and the connection to student learning, reflected with me on the power of integrating career-related teaching, and specifically, the unexpected impact the RIASEC language has had in becoming the “ultimate relationship building tool.”? For context, the common language of the RIASEC as part of the WoW initiative was deployed, beginning in elementary, across 28 schools in Cajon Valley. Although the RIASEC is best known for organizing careers and personal interests through assessment, in the district it is the common language for integrating career-related learning for every child in every grade.

During the school tours, I spoke with several educators and asked them to share their initial thoughts about first learning about the WoW initiative six years ago. Without exception, they all thought, “Here we go again!” In their minds it was another classroom initiative that would soon go away. With any education initiative, there will always be some educators who adopt it and make it their own, while others may choose to take a more cautious approach.? However, for the teachers who have integrated the RIASEC framework as a means to building more meaningful relationships with their students, the results have been incredibly positive.

Deploying the RIASEC model has revealed an unexpected benefit that goes beyond self efficacy and career exploration; it has become a common language that helps teachers build more powerful and insightful relationships with students. Over time, the impact has been especially felt in the early grades where the language is found to be an excellent approach to differentiating instruction, which of course is critical to classroom management and learning. However, the ultimate impact of the RIASEC is that when everyone is seen as unique and special, then teachers get to know their students on a much deeper level, one that these teachers felt was “a game changer.”

“Had I known then what I know now, I would have had much deeper relationships with my students [in years past]- I’ve been teaching for more than two decades, and this is the perfect way to get to know your students. When this project first came out I said, ‘Oh No- this is not going to work.’ But I tried it and it did work!” exclaimed one of the education specialists with whom I chatted. The teachers went on to elaborate on their integration methods and the value of using the common language across core content areas and in group rotations. Speaking with them reminded me of the conversations I’d had with students over time, those who’d had access to teachers who invited them to explore the language of RIASEC. Often they would initially express adult like examples of self-limiting beliefs about their futures but would then would shift by expressing new hope about their futures that came along with learning about the RIASEC. One fourth grader once told me, “I thought I was just going to be a football player, but now I’m thinking about being a geographer or engineer.” This story is emblematic of how students can feel when teachers introduce an agentic approach of developing a common language of self; and the outcomes do more than activate a career-related possible self, it also brings intrinsic motivators aligned to hope and engagement.?

One of the teacher coaches shared, “We must give more credit to the kids, because they can absolutely differentiate their interests. And as a part of that process, we are also building vocabulary skills. Building the language of RIASEC with students is powerful.” Learning and self efficacy go hand-in-hand at this school site and teachers are using their mastery of blended learning to build this common language. This means that the language shows up in all content areas based on the teacher’s creativity and mastery of the language.?

But what struck me most on this day of touring was the impact that this work has on building up the students and the power of teacher integration. They shared, “When teachers build this language in their classroom they have a tool that can make every student feel special, where every child can be known and appreciated through a common language. We are able to make this happen with this new approach.” And when those same teachers, the early adopters who have learned the language, tell me that students would rather continue with their RIASEC projects instead of going to recess or lunch, we know that students are engaged, motivated, and demonstrating persistence towards their learning. Teachers shared their reflection about the work they do in the early grades and the deep understanding they have at this time in students’ lives and how they can really get to know them on a deeper level. They said that teachers “won't get the biggest bang for their buck if they don’t have a relationship with their students.” For this reason they said the RIASEC is an “accelerator of relationships”.?

When I visited one of the primary classrooms and sat down next to a student, I asked him what his themes were. He confidently said has one --Conventional. He then went on to explain his Conventional theme and how he wants to be a soccer player when he grows up. What I learned later from his teacher team is that his behaviors and engagement had completely changed after learning about his interest theme and that his teacher had developed and deployed differentiated assignments that matched his interest style. They went on to say that RIASEC had become a behavior management framework that paired perfectly with SEL strategies used in the classroom. Together, these approaches had changed the child’s classroom experience for the better.??

As adults, we may have doubts and say there’s no way that students can do this, especially in the early grades. But these kids can do it - they love to learn about who they are in context with others in the world of work, and even their peers.? They can do so much more than we give them credit for. This team also went on to share a warning to the naysayers that feel this work is about tracking kids. They said that teaching the RIASEC in the early grades is not about selecting a student’s future career.? “It’s about relationships and building a knowledge of your students so kids want to learn.” They explained that students’ interests are dynamic and fluid during these early grades and their interests may change but that level of agency is supported and expected.?

As we talked further, we discussed the negative and positive perceptions of the RIASEC approach to help others understand what it is and what it isn’t in the classroom.? To recap the takeaways from the tours and my time over the last several years talking to teachers and students, it comes down to the following:?

The RIASEC is a language that:?

• Helps to identify our interests and what we like to do?
• Builds better relationships
• Lives in the classroom, around the school, and at home
• Supports integrating personalized learning
• Brings context to classroom content
• Encourages vocabulary development
• Is accessible for ELL’s and special populations of learners?
• Makes sense of careers
• Supports the development of cooperative learning groups?
• Thrives in all content areas
• Pairs with SEL
• Encourages the strengths in all interests.
• Is ready to activate student agency
• Allows for students to change their interests.?

What the RIASEC Isn’t:

• Not a tracking tool
• Not a stand-alone lesson.
• Not to be used in the early grades to pick your career.