Microcompliments, microsupports, and microvalidations are the antidote to microaggressions.
Trainees are often vulnerable and in need of support. Teachers who verbally affirm students’ opinions, emotions, and beliefs are engaging in microvalidation.
- Microcompliments are subtle communications implying praise, admiration, or respect for an individual’s identity or heritage. Microcompliments suggest that the person giving the compliment perceives that the recipient possesses something of high value, including identity or experience.
- Microsupports are intentional communications that provide feedback and scaffold resources with the intention of supporting an individual who may feel unwelcome or invisible in an environment. Examples of microsupport include a person who actively listens, makes eye contact, expresses interest and attention, or provides resources to students.
- Microvalidations are communications that appreciate the experience, thoughts, abilities, or feelings of an individual who may feel unwelcome or invisible in an environment.
