Our Mission and Approach

Our Mission

Bright Morning is an international education, coaching and consulting firm that exists to bring new learning practices to organizations that aspire to interrupt inequities, build resilient communities, and heal and transform the world. Our work transforms schools into equitable places of learning where every child gets whatever they need, every day, in order to be successful and to thrive. Process matters. The journey is the destination. Therefore, we lead processes of creation and transformation that honor and nurture all of those involved.

An introduction to Bright Morning founder Elena Aguilar.

Our Origins

Since 2007, Elena Aguilar has offered training in coaching, education consulting, and professional development to educators and mission-driven leaders across the United States and abroad. Over the course of ten years, she built a team of highly skilled, enthusiastic leaders who became Bright Morning Consulting LLC in 2017.

Our Name

Bright Morning offers hope, promise and potential. The crisp, clean air at dawn rejuvenates, the chirping of birds communicates joy, and the rays of the sun generously cast light on our paths. A bright morning is welcoming, inspiring, and can ignite giddy anticipation. Anything can happen on a bright morning. Through our coaching resources, publications, and services, we aim to inspire education personnel to be emboldened and transformative in their work.

“Words cannot describe the impact Elena, her team and their program has had on myself, my clients and our classrooms across our region and the Teach for America organization as a whole. I am very excited to keep on practicing and getting better!”

Adam Morales, New teacher coach, Phoenix, AZ

Our Approach

Our Theory of Action drives everything we do. Read below to learn more about what we believe and how we operationalize those beliefs into work with our clients.

Problems of change are problems of learning

Our schools must be transformed in order to become equitable places of learning. This requires learning, and unlearning, on the part of adults leading in schools. We focus on transforming the process and experience of learning for adults as the key lever for transforming schools. If we, the adults, learn to learn more effectively, then we can change our schools. If leaders and coaches learn to facilitate transformational, effective learning, then we can change our schools.

“The thoughtfulness, flexibility, and depth of Bright Morning’s training complemented the thoroughness of Elena’s book. I deeply respect the compassion of their work and highly value the tools they have shared with me and my colleagues. We are better equipped to nurture, inspire, and patiently transform the schools we love.”

Aubrey Caldwell, Instructional Facilitator, Gaston County Schools, North Carolina

Change must occur at the individual and group level to ultimately transform systems

We start with the smallest unit, the individual. We offer tools to make an individual’s experience transformational (this is the focus of The Art of Coaching and Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators). Individuals don’t exist in isolation, and transformation requires collective action. As such we also focus on the next layer – groups. We support groups of adults to learn together, acquire skills to build effective teams, and improve organizational learning conditions. Our work toggles back and forth between group dynamics and an individual’s leadership (this is the focus of The Art of Coaching Teams and Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators). When teams reimagine their own way of operating, it opens the door to reimagining entire systems. We work in the zone of our greatest agency, but don’t lose sight of context.  We cultivate our own way of being and attend to our emotions above all else while acknowledging the systems within which we operate. We stay focused on our locus of control and influence, and seek always to expand our influence.

We hone our focus on equity and emotional resilience

Both are necessary foundations for transformation, and often neglected in conversations about school transformation. We know that the work of equity cannot be done without an understanding and acceptance of emotions; we recognize that we need resilience to do the work of equity.

“Elena and her team’s involvement in the development of our coaching program and training of our instructional coaching staff has been paramount to the success that we have seen and will continue to see. Working with them has been one of the best decisions we’ve made.”

Christina Wildhagen, Omaha Public Schools

What We Do

Bright Morning teammates are master facilitators and experts in adult learning. Five principles guide the development and execution of all of our services:

  • Safety is essential for learning.
  • A problem-centered orientation facilitates deepest learning.
  • When we activate agency, participants do the deepest learning.
  • Participants need practice.
  • Learning is a path for individual and collective liberation.

As a result, when working with Bright Morning, you should expect a highly engaging and interactive learning experience where each participant is valued and has the opportunity to grow their capacity and return to their work armed with concrete tools and strategies.