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

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

Overview

Scenario: education leaves an impression

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 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 recognises how disturbing the material is, but has been approved for its usage and personally believes that these events are important to teach.

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?

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 who have experienced trauma to minimise negative interactions between traumatic events, the people who experience it and their educational environments.

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 trauma-informed education 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).

The high prevalence of traumatic events, the varying context they occur and their unique antecedents and consequences reinforce the importance of integrating perceptions of trauma within societal structures. Olff et al. (2020) reinforces that “trauma is the norm rather than the expectation” (p.2).

Types of trauma

Trauma is incredibly varied and as such literature has many measures for the features of traumatic events. Spytska (2023) highlights “intensity; significance; importance and relevance; pathogenicity; acuteness of onset (suddenness); duration; recurrence; associations with premorbid personality traits” (p.83), of which each contributes to further varying symptoms and consequences. 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).

Prevalence

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 (figure 1.) and research has shown significantly higher prevalence and effects in demographics associated with poorer socioeconomic status (SES) (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 early as possible 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 or 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 further cognitive impairments as “executive function, memory, and attention” (Bücker et al., 2012, p.758).

Non-attendance to school

Literature on “Adverse childhood experiences” (ACE), or trauma within children, represents a considerable factor to the way traumatic events can impact the ability to access school (Stempel et al., 2017) and often culminates in school dropout (Jacobson, 2020). Non-attendance has the ability to reinforce and highlight significant negative health outcomes within absentees, namely associations with “higher levels of chronic diseases, substance abuse, mental health concerns, and early death” (Stempel et al. 2017, p. 837). Trauma is also believed to be a considerable motivating factor towards truancy, which while having the consequences of absenteeism, has further consequences based on the outward perception of the behaviour being an “offence” and thus further stressors through relationships and often the legal system (Hargrave, 2022).

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 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

Trauma-informed education

Trauma-informed education is a theoretical framework that attempts to address the high prevalence and significant consequences of trauma throughout the education system, thus improving educational and developmental outcomes for students (Howard, 2019). Trauma-informed education justifies its existence as a remedial and harm-reduction approach to the negative consequences and effects of traumatic events. Howard (2019) speculates that without consideration of trauma within education, organisations themselves as they stand without a framework to address trauma, considering it's prevalence, could actually hinder the recovery process of trauma and reinforce the cost of trauma related consequences.

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 (Stokes, 2022, 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).

Guidelines for implementing trauma-informed education

Through a number of guidelines, Howard et al. (2022) reinforces theoretical fundamental systemic and organisational changes that are necessary to implement trauma-informed education. Briefly summarised these guidelines suggest (p.6-8):

  • Training and education of TIE principles for conveners and stakeholders of educational settings, including collaboration with other tertiary and accredited education providers such as universities
  • Ensuring training and education is within best-practices, effective, sustainable, consistent, reinforces resilience and is adaptable
  • Security, support and recognition of the impact trauma can have on educators and learners
  • Training for staff to collaborate with support services, case management and the unique circumstances of enrolled students (eg. student’s living in out-of-home care, remote students)
  • Inclusivity and accessibility for all learners and educators based on identified and potentially un-identified trauma needs, including the support for accessing alternatives providers and services
  • Collaboration and working relationships between between educators, learners, parents, specialists and support services
  • The application of techniques and approaches recommended by similar trauma-informed practices and specialists
  • Direct collaboration with mental health, child protection and legal services.
  • Development and collaboration between the education provided and the recipient students
  • Consistent and critical re-evaluation of systems, policies, curriculum and law that influence educational settings with acknowledgement of the long-term effects and causes of trauma
  • Development of policy acknowledges culture, intersectionality and corresponding power structures relevant to the context the education is provided

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), and in some particular cases, there is speculation that TIE could mirror other trauma-based interventions that have been both inappropriately managed, or have gone so far as to cause harm (Ertl & Neuner, 2014), necessitating strong empirical evidence and best-practice for the implementation of TIE. Other research acknowledges the inconsistent results however reinforces theoretical justification for its necessity (Howard, 2019), and that there is indeed research to support significant improvements in student outcomes such as student attendance, expulsion, suspensions (Alison et al., 2019) and in emotional and behavioural measures in students (Roseby et al., 2021. For 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)
  • Fundamental systemic and organisational change is necessary for the implementation of TIE
  • 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

The benefits that trauma-informed care offers students is through the alleviation of the corresponding negative effects of trauma presented and reinforced in educational contexts. These outcomes are yet to be seen however as the current state of literature remains sceptical and scrutinising towards the approach. 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 other trauma-informed care frameworks. Literature has reinforced for a long time that trauma and corresponding “Traumatic and Stressor-Related Disorders” have had significant, negative effects on educational bodies, and that these effects contribute to decreased accessibility, well-being and learning outcomes for students and educators. Calls to address trauma within education have led organisations to adopt Trauma-Informed Care principles and guidelines according to the interpreted needs of the relevant organisations, especially following the significant effects of “mass trauma” such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The distinct application of Trauma-Informed Education within higher-education also further highlights issues to be addressed with the effects of trauma related to disabilities, culture and intersectionality, potentially allowing further application of trauma-informed principles and exploration of issues not commonly addressed by current models of trauma. Despite the lack of efficacy, the approach has significant heuristic and theoretical strength that is reinforced by powerful enthusiasm to integrate the framework by researchers and within organisations, representing the beginning of an accessible and healthy future for our students.

See also

References

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