Explore the latest articles, Weekly Reflections, research updates and publications from the Six Stages Framework. Browse our growing collection of insights into human behaviour, belonging, inclusion and psychological safety.
New publications appear here automatically, with the most recent first.
Building Inclusive Futures: What Are We Becoming Accustomed to Hearing?
What are we becoming accustomed to hearing one human being say about another? SSF Weekly Reflection #015 explores how harmful language becomes normalised, why inclusion does not require agreement, and how our environments shape what becomes psychologically and socially permissible.
My Dear White Friend: What Happens When the Racist Is Someone You Love?
What happens when racism comes from someone you love? Letter Seven explores the difficult space where love, loyalty, belonging and accountability collide.
Algorithmic Acceleration: How Digital Platforms Are Changing the Way We Think
How quickly can a viewpoint become a certainty? This week’s SSF reflection explores algorithmic acceleration — how digital environments can shape the speed and direction of our thinking — and asks whether psychological friction may create the pause needed for curiosity, reflection and more thoughtful movement through the Six Stages Framework.
My Dear White Friend — Letter Six: The States We Believe We Would Never Inhabit
In this extended Letter Six, Dr Shungu explores the “cave of unconscious bias”, why good people may resist uncomfortable evidence, how friends and caring professionals can unintentionally shield others from accountability, and the environments that shape the states we come to inhabit.
They Walk Amongst Us: Two Years On, What Have We Learnt — and What Have We Changed?
In August 2024, I called upon people to stand in the light as Britain witnessed racist violence and hostility. Two years later, I revisit that article through the Six Stages Framework, examining what we have learnt about escalation, psychological states, social environments and the conditions needed for meaningful change.
My Dear Black Friend: A Response to the Letters
After four My Dear White Friend letters, the conversation changes direction. An imagined white friend reflects on what it means to listen, confront defensiveness and allow learning about racism to change behaviour.
What State Are You Occupying? And What State Are You Been Drawn Into?
What state are you occupying right now? Weekly Reflection #012 explores how stages, states, emotions and environments interact, why earlier states can be reactivated, and how repeated states may influence who we are becoming.
My Dear White Friend: Please Don’t Make Me Your Textbook
When you ask a Black friend to explain racism, who carries the cost of the lesson? Letter Four explores self-education, emotional labour, defensiveness and a harder question: does your allyship extend to Black people you do not already know?
Gender Bias, Misogyny and Backlash: What Did the Six Stages Framework See?
In 2022, the Six Stages Framework was already exploring gender bias as a dynamic and fluid process involving silence, dismissal, blame, entrenchment and extreme advocacy. Four years later, Dr Shungu M’gadzah revisits that work to ask what stood up, what became more complex and what the SSF has learned.
What’s New at the SSF: Research, Evidence and New Ways to Explore the Framework
This week at the Six Stages Framework: a new invitation to researchers, an expanded Research, Publications & Academic Impact page, developments in Media & Expert Commentary, and new thinking on belonging across difference, evidence and the future development of the SSF.
Research with the Six Stages Framework
Explore opportunities to research the Six Stages Framework. This page invites doctoral researchers, academics, Educational Psychologists and EPs in training to apply, test, question and develop the SSF through independent research.
What Dolly Parton Taught Us About Belonging Across Difference
Why did Dolly Parton seem to connect with people across race, class, faith, sexuality and politics? This SSF Weekly Reflection explores childhood memory, music, poverty, Whitney Houston, allyship and what it means to create belonging without requiring sameness.
