Collectively generating knowledge and learning from one another’s diversity of ideas, perspectives, and lived experiences is central to the learning process. Creating communities, teams, and partnerships that can push and extend each other’s thinking and practice care for one another is a powerful way to sustain effort and persistence, and to support learners to thrive more broadly. Connected to these notions of collaboration and collective learning is the idea of interdependence — a reminder that we are all interconnected, our decisions and actions impact others, and learners can support one another. The disability community reminds us of the value of interdependence as opposed to an overemphasis on independence. We can work to support each other to ensure needs are met within the learning environment, and more broadly.

• Create community agreements that emphasize learners’ ideas for fostering collaboration, interdependence, and collective learning.
• Create teams with clear goals, roles, expectations, and responsibilities.
• Use prompts that guide learners in when and how to ask for help.
• Use prompts or protocols that guide learners to surface and share differing perspectives.
• Encourage and support opportunities for peer interactions and supports (e.g., peer tutors).
• Construct communities of learners engaged in common interests or activities or who identify in similar ways.
• Construct communities of learners engaged in differing interests or activities or who identify in differing ways.
• Encourage questions to more fully understand concepts, ideas, and perspectives.