Interrogating Trauma-Informed Practice: Pursuing Emotionally Responsive Teaching

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 1:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Decolonizing Teaching and Learning in the Early Years (Table 7)

Abstract

Relatively little work has questioned what is meant by “trauma” or “trauma-informed approaches.” Here, I interrogate the notion of trauma-informed practices, arguing that by focusing primarily on the child’s behavior and classroom structure, these models do not meaningfully consider healing from trauma as a relational process and neglect the central role that teachers, peers, and important others may play in supporting or further harming children navigating trauma and other forms of chronic stress. Through articulation of a framework for Emotionally-Responsive Teaching, I seek to expand current conceptualizations of trauma-informed practice to encompass more broadly the relational demands of supporting children with challenging life circumstances.

Author

• Travis S. Wright, University of Wisconsin - Madison