"There Needs to Be More Empathy": A Student-Centric Reenvisioning of Trauma-Informed Pedagogy

• In Event: Understanding Holistic Education in a School System

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of an ongoing critical participatory action research project with a team of undergraduate co-researchers. This project utilizes focus groups with undergraduate students at a Small Liberal Arts College to explore how students make sense of the core values of Trauma-Informed Pedagogy (TIP) in practice: safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment. Our findings challenge the instructor-centric lens that guides most scholarship on trauma-informed teaching and learning in post-secondary education. Students voice complex, nuanced, and dynamic understandings of these values as they are practiced by instructors. Our findings provide new avenues for theorizing and practicing trauma-informed pedagogy.

Authors

• Kirk Anderson, Dickinson College
  Presenting Author

• Valerie G. Cerna, Dickinson College
  Presenting Author

• Jessie Zinderman, Dickinson College
  Presenting Author

• Westley Lennon, Dickinson College
  Presenting Author

• Tatianna Sweeney, Dickinson College
  Presenting Author

• Natasha Stein, Dickinson College
  Presenting Author