Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Trauma-informed education

Trauma-informed education:
What is trauma-informed education, and how can it benefit students?

Overview

Scenario: education leaves an impression

Figure 1. The Geography Lesson or "The Black Spot" by Albert Bettannier (1887) depicts a French tutor pointing to Alsace-Lorraine on a map, French territory lost to war with a German state.
This artwork depicts the history of indifference the education system's material has had on our students. Centre-front of the class, and of particular interest is the distinct, blonde-haired, blue-eyed child, a parody of the "archetypical" German - how would the "German" child react?

Samantha is running a workshop in her counselling course that provides students with the opportunity to practise common, fundamental techniques used by counsellors but is worried that the discussions may become too “too much”. Richard opens up his high-school class on the history of the holocaust with a video depicting the conditions of a concentration camp, Auschwitz. Richard is conflicted as he recognizes how disturbing the material is, but has been approved for its usage and personally believes that these events are important to teach.

Often it’s the most confronting lessons in life that are of the greatest importance. Trauma, however, is pervasive and comes in many forms and often makes learning, being in an educational environment and teaching these lessons difficult for some.

Most people experience some form of trauma in their life and the effect that these experiences can have on people significantly varies and is deeply personal. Trauma-Informed Education is the practice of utilising Trauma-Informed Care principles within an educational setting to support students that have experienced trauma and to minimise negative interactions between trauma, the people that experience it and educational environments. Research suggests that experiencing traumatic events can significantly impact abilities necessary to learning such as attention, information retention even when the psychological trauma does not evolve into a diagnosis.

How do educational organisations ensure that they are teaching often fundamental aspects of life while ensuring the wellbeing of their students? Trauma-Informed Education is a recent movement to address these concerns, and attempts to ensure that everyone receives an adequate education through the use of effective, evidence based Trauma-Informed Care frameworks.

Focus questions: What is Trauma? How does Trauma affect education? How does TIE attempt to address the effects of trauma?

Psychological trauma

Figure 2. PTSD signs and symptoms.
Visualised are the potential signs and symptoms of PTSD

Psychological trauma refers to the psychological effects and changes made to an individual following the perception or experiencing of distressing or traumatic stimuli and events eg. violence, abuse, natural disasters. Psychological Trauma presents itself through abnormal emotional and behavioural experiences as a consequence of the event. The emotional and behavioural consequences to trauma can persist long after the event has taken place and develop into a disorder. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) categorises these disorders as ”Traumatic and Stressor-Related Disorders”, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), if the traumatising event has prolonged exposure (Walter et al., 2010). These diagnoses can have significant, abnormal effects on individuals (Figure 2). Other disorders are also significantly linked to psychological trauma and can exacerbate symptoms, such as in Dissociative Identity Disorder (Reyes et al., 2008).

Types of trauma

The cause, context and reason for a traumatic event can influence internal and external reactions and perceptions to the behaviour and emotional responses that distinguish psychological trauma. These types of trauma include natural or human-caused trauma, individual, group and mass traumas, interpersonal traumas, developmental traumas, and adverse childhood experiences (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2014).

Demographics

Studies conducted across the world were analysed by Benjet et al. (2016), concluding that on average 70% (n = 125,718) of participants had “reported a traumatic event” and 30% of the participants can recall “four or more” traumatic events  (p.2). The prevalence of traumatic events varies across the world on average (p.17) and research has shown significantly higher prevalence and effects in demographics from poorer SES circumstances (Gluck et al., 2022; MacGregor, 2018)

Key points: Psychological Trauma is caused by distressing events or stimuli (Walter et al., 2010) . Experiencing Psychological Trauma can lead to abnormal emotional and behavioural experiences (Walter et al., 2010). The types of Trauma and traumatic events are varied and can significantly differ in effect (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2014). Traumatic events occur in most people's life and have significantly worse effects and prevalence in those within lower SES circumstances (Gluck et al., 2022; MacGregor, 2018)

Trauma in educational settings

Research has shown that trauma and related diagnoses can have a significant impact on the development of student’s and ability to learn in educational settings, leaving students to fall through the gaps and at times cause harm (Petrone & Stanton, 2021). These effects have been measured beyond educational settings such as within adult-hood “functioning” and valuable social connections between peers and adults (Jacobson, 2020, p.1).

Children

Research supports treating children with trauma as vitally important due to the residual impacts on development and the cumulative effects that occur due to children being the most frequent group to be exposed to trauma while subsequently being the most vulnerable to its negative outcomes and potential to development into psychiatric disorders, of which are theorised to be significantly under-represented and treated (Woodbridge et al., 2016). Academically, children who are exposed to trauma are vulnerable to facing long-term negative effects that influence their educational capacity due to the residual negative effects of trauma (Frieze, 2015), influencing specific and necessary determinants that are necessary for educational success such as creating deficiencies or deviations in learning, behaviour, social, psychological and emotional functioning (Caelen & William, 2011) and often culminating in school dropout (Jacobson, 2020).

Higher education

Trauma doesn’t stop when adult-hood begins and research has noted that the psychological effects of trauma can be a barrier to accessing higher education (Caroline & Zoe, 2021). Even when students are able to display competent academic skills to progress students often face difficulties confronting the stress of participating in curriculum especially in demographics who identify within an Intersectionality (p.3). These barriers affect fields that are often deemed necessary to functioning. Covid-19 for example, is a “mass trauma” (see National Trauma) that has impacted the wellbeing of nursing students due to the added stress of balancing the detrimental, long term effects of the pandemic and the prerequisites to successfully accomplishing their educational requirements (Goddard et al., 2021).

Key points: Children who are exposed to Psychological trauma are vulnerable to decreased academic performance and wellbeing (Frieze, 2015; Caelen & William, 2011) Trauma is often a barrier to accessing higher education (Caroline & Zoe, 2021). In adults, traumatic events can lead to decreased academic performance due to stress (Goddard et al., 2021)

Trauma-informed education

Recognition of the effects of trauma within education and calls for reform have been well described as early as 1993 (Butler & Carello, 2015; American Psychological Association, 1993) however literature suggests that trauma-informed approaches within education have been limited before 2019 (Maynard et al., 2019). Pressure on educational organisations following Covid-19 led to calls for implementation (Patrone & Stanton, 2021; Harper & Neubauer 2021) however literature has struggled to highlight a universally effective model based on currently limited research (Avery et al. 2021).

Models and principles

There is no universally agreed upon model to implement Trauma-Informed Education (Avery et al. 2021). Current applications of TIE stem from and are based on Trauma-Informed Care models that have been implemented in other, non-educational environments (Sweetman, 2022). (See Trauma-Informed Care). Implementation of TIE varies significantly and different approaches have been tried based on the needs of the specific organisations. The needs of the specific organisations can be perceived through the difference in efficacy and calling for Trauma-Informed Education. (p.3) Trauma-Informed Positive Education is a model developed on the theoretical framework of positive psychology, and focuses on the teacher’s role in implementing a strength-based approach to minimising the effects of trauma based on three main principles (Stokes, 2022).

The three main principles of trauma-informed positive education (Stokes, 2022, p.3) “To build self-regulatory capacities of the body and emotions" “To support students to build their relational capacity and experience a sense of relatedness and belonging at school” “To integrate wellbeing principles that nurture growth, identify strengths and build student’s psychological resources”

The broader demographics of Higher-education necessitates Trauma-Informed Education to adopt the SAMHSA principles with extra consideration of culturally appropriate practice through recognition of intersectionality, racial trauma, Critical Race Theory, and respect towards individual Cultural Capital (Henshaw, 2022). Other principle considerations include (p.5):

• Critical Allyship - The acknowledgement of bias, power and the social relationship educational structures with their students.
• Intentional Positive Disruption - the deconstruction of “normative” (See Normativity) ways of belief.

It's suggested that these educational changes require foundational policy and curriculum changes to reflect the approach (p.7). Some research also concludes that policy is best created and implemented with direct collaboration with educators (Sweetman, 2022).

Efficacy

Literature presents a sceptical look at the efficacy of Trauma-Informed Education, suggesting there is a significant lack of evidence that justifies implementing policy changes within educational organisations (Maynard, 2019). Other research acknowledges the inconsistent results however reinforces that there were indeed significant improvements in emotional and behavioural measures (Roseby et al., 2021). In teachers, research has shown that embracing Trauma-Informed approaches can reduce stressors and teacher burnout (Kim et al., 2021).

Key points: Trauma-Informed Education varies between organisations depending on their context and needs, and lacks a universal framework (Avery et al., 2021;Henshaw, 2022). Current models utilise common Trauma-Informed Care (Sweetman, 2022). Trauma-Informed Positive Education utilises three core principals for a strength-based approach (Stokes, 2022). Research presents mixed efficacy of current implementation of Trauma-Informed Education however reinforce the necessity in addressing trauma’s impact on students (Roseby et al., 2021; Kim et al., 2021).

Conclusion

Literature has reinforced for a long time that Trauma and corresponding “Traumatic and Stressor-Related Disorders” have had a significant, negative effect on educational student bodies, and that these effects are factors that lead to decreased accessibility, wellbeing and learning outcomes for students. Calls to address trauma within education have led primary and higher-education organisations to adopt Trauma-Informed Care principles and frameworks according to the interpreted needs of the relevant organisations, especially following the significant effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The distinct application of Trauma-Informed Education within higher-education also further highlights issues to be addressed with trauma related to non-normative cultures and intersectionality, representing that further application of trauma-informed principles could bring to light issues of trauma not commonly addressed. The push for Trauma-Informed Education has had mixed levels of effectiveness in part due to the lack of a “universal” system that has proven efficacy, like we see with other trauma-informed care frameworks. Despite the lack of efficacy, the call to address trauma within education is strong and this model represents the beginning of an accessible and healthy future for our students.

Quiz

Trauma Quiz 1 Children are have significantly increased susceptibility to traumatic events True False 2 Which one of these best describes Critical Allyship? A critical alliance between nations The critical analysis of bias, power and the relationships between organizations and individuals to reinforce collaboration and overcome harmful power-structures An approach to curing trauma A psychological phenomenon that describes in-group bias 3 Covid-19 is best described as an example of which type of traumatic event? Abuse Violence Mass Trauma

See also

• Critical Race Theory (Wikipedia)
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Wikipedia)
• Intersectionality (Wikipedia)
• National Trauma (Wikipedia)
• Normativity) (Wikipedia)
• Psychological Trauma (Book chapter, 2022)
• Trauma-Informed Care (Book chapter, 2023)

References

Avery, J. C., Morris, H., Galvin, E., Misso, M., Savaglio, M., & Skouteris, H. (2020). Systematic review of school-wide trauma-informed approaches. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 14(3), 381-397. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-020-00321-1

Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (US). (2014). Trauma-informed care in behavioral health services. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US). (Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 57). Chapter 3, Understanding the impact of trauma. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207191/

Carello, J., & Butler, L. D. (2015). Practicing what we teach: Trauma-informed educational practice. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 35(3), 262-278. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841233.2015.1030059

Frieze, S. (2015). How trauma affects student learning and behaviour. BU Journal of Graduate Studies in Education, 7(2), 27-34. Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1230675

Goddard, A., Jones, R. W., Esposito, D., & Janicek, E. (2021). Trauma informed education in nursing: A call for action. Nurse Education Today, 101, 104880. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2021.104880

Henshaw, L. A. (2022). Building trauma-informed approaches in higher education. Behavioral Sciences, 12(10), 368. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs12100368

Janice Carello & Lisa D. Butler (2015). Practicing what we teach: Trauma-informed educational practice. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 35(3), 262-278. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841233.2015.1030059

Jones, C., & Nangah, Z. (2021). Higher education students: Barriers to engagement; psychological alienation theory, trauma and trust; a systematic review. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, 25(2), 62-71. ISSN 1360-3108

Kim, S., Crooks, C. V., Bax, K., & Shokoohi, M. (2021). Impact of trauma-informed training and mindfulness-based social-emotional learning program on teacher attitudes and burnout: A mixed-methods study. School Mental Health, 13(1), 55-68. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-020-09406-6

Kuban, C., & Steele, W. (2011). Restoring safety and hope: From victim to survivor. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 20(1), 41-44.ISSN-1089-5701

Maynard, B. R., Farina, A., Dell, N. A., & Kelly, M. S. (2019). Effects of trauma-informed approaches in schools: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 15(1-2), e1018. https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1018

Petrone, R., & Stanton, C. R. (2021). From producing to reducing trauma: A call for “trauma-informed” research(ers) to interrogate how schools harm students. Educational Researcher, 50(8), 537-545. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X211014850

Reyes, G., Elhai, J. D., & Ford, J. D. (Eds.). (2008). The encyclopedia of psychological trauma (pp. 103-107). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. ISBN: 978-0-470-44748-2

Roseby, S., & Gascoigne, M. (2021). A systematic review on the impact of trauma-informed education programs on academic and academic-related functioning for students who have experienced childhood adversity. Traumatology, 27(2), 149. https://doi.org/10.1037/trm0000276

Sweetman, N. (2022, July). What is a trauma informed classroom? What are the benefits and challenges involved?. Frontiers in Education, 7, 914448. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.914448

Stokes, H. (2022, June). Leading trauma-informed education practice as an instructional model for teaching and learning. Frontiers in Education, 7, 911328. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.911328

Walter, S., Leissner, N., Jerg-Bretzke, L., Hrabal, V., & Traue, H. C. (2010). Pain and emotional processing in psychological trauma. Psychiatria Danubina, 22(3), 465-470. PMID: 20856194

External links

Provide

• SAMHSA Practical Guide for Implementing a Trauma-Informed Approach (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)