Trauma-Informed Remedy and Repair in the College Classroom: A Student-Centered Approach

• In Event: Beyond the Classroom: Pedagogy, Equity, and Responsive Teaching in Higher Education

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-centered lens that guide 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, student-centered possibilities for researching and practicing trauma-informed pedagogy.

Authors

• Kirk Anderson, Dickinson College

• Natasha Stein, Dickinson College