How Trauma Informed Practices Empower Students with Compassion
In Britzman’s article, ‘Teacher education in the confusion of our times’, (2000) the author speaks to the difficulty of teaching when faced with the issue of trauma. The helplessness and loss that students feel when they’ve experienced trauma can greatly reduce their ability to absorb any kind of knowledge. She states, ‘“We have yet to grapple with what knowledge does to teachers, particularly, the difficult knowledge (…) with what it means to come to terms with various kinds of trauma, both individual and collective.” (Britzman p.202).
In the article ‘Relational ways of being an educator: Trauma-informed practice supporting disenfranchised young people’ (2015) the authors Ann Morgan, Donna Pendergast, Raymond Brown & Deborah Heck explore how disenfranchised young students can be re-engaged with trauma informed practice. They discuss how our TPI (teacher professional identity) must incorporate a caring and understanding attitude towards students that are affected by trauma, abuse, neglect, poverty, homelessness, substance abuse, and a myriad of disadvantages. Rather than blaming these students for poor performance, for quitting school or being expelled they urge us to look at whether schools are failing to accommodate the complex needs of marginalized students. As the authors suggest, we must create curriculum that is “…young person-centered, trauma-informed and relational in nature.” (p.1048) Trauma informed practice takes into consideration how trauma can affect a student’s brain development, which in turn can affect their performance academically and socially at school. (p.1038) Treating students in a respectful, compassionate, and proactive way while avoiding triggers can help to support students to learn in a more relaxed and effective way. I concur with the author that we must build trust with our students and approach them with kindness in order to build positive relationships and gain the best results in student performance. These strategies work well for students who experience or have experienced some disadvantages or trauma, and for many other students as well. Being patient, tolerant, empathetic, authentic, and actively listening as a teacher all help to support students to perform at their best.
In the book ‘The heart of learning and teaching: An online resource,’ (2010) the authors Anderson-Ketchmark, C., & Alvarez, M. R. explore trauma-informed practice in teaching. The authors provide compassionate teaching strategies for students suffering from trauma and disadvantages. This resource guide assists teachers to foster resilience, create supportive learning environments, empower students, and provide tools for teachers and community members. I agree with the author that we must foster resiliency by providing unconditional positive regard for our students in a safe and caring environment. While we must be assertive about student performance and behavior, we still need to remain calm and focused on empowering and never disempowering our students. The authors explain that compassionate teachers “operate under the principle that you cannot teach the mind until you teach the heart.” (p.18) As compassionate teachers we know that we must help to meet the basic physical and emotional needs of students before we can ask them to achieve high levels of academic success. At the same time, we use our positive belief in our students to help them to achieve their greatest level of success.