Situating Trauma, Healing and Well-being as Integral to Community-Based Science Teaching and Learning

• In Event: Addressing Issues in Environmental Justice Education through Collective Power in Chicagoland and Southern California

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes

This paper draws on our collective work in South Los Angeles and explores how working in community with teachers led to the development of an empirically-rooted trauma-informed conceptual framework. Trauma-informed Science (TIS) extends current understandings of justice-centered science teaching by situating healing and well-being as integral parts of our justice efforts. Moreover, the conceptualization of this framework illuminates the power of engaging in research with community is integral to community power, ecological thriving, sustainability, and well-being.

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

We draw on critical perspectives and approaches to justice-oriented science teaching and learning (Author, 2017, 2024; Davis & Schaeffer, 2019; Luehmann et al. 2024) that support dismantling post-colonial and post-racial narratives in science education. Connected, we recognize that such approaches still necessitate an understanding of how “critical science education might function in ways that unintentionally compromise children’s socioemotional well-being,” (Davis & Schaeffer, 2019 p. 386). In South Los Angeles, where Black and Latine students are faced with the consequences of social and political decision-making that have led to a multitude of climate and environmental injustices, the need to attend to well-being is clear. We present trauma-informed science (Authors, 2025) as a conceptual framework developed in relationship with educators to understand how we can holistically (emotionally, mentally, and physically; Authors, 2023) support student well-being in ways that are empowering and agentic when engaging in community-based science learning (Authors, 2024).

3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry

This study explores mechanisms utilized in a long-term participatory design-based research (Bang & Vossoughi, 2016) study focused on co-designing a community-based science curriculum in a South Los Angeles school that led to the development of a trauma-informed science framework as a means to advance our collective justice efforts in formal science learning.

4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials

Data sources include audio transcripts and reflective memos of co-design sessions and classroom observations, and teacher and student interviews over the course of partnership work.

5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view

Data demonstrated that despite curricular design efforts to empower students as climate and environmental changemakers, students often expressed negative emotions and experiences towards and with their environments. Teachers noted student disengagement (a trauma response) in classroom learning and the need for pedagogical practices that mediated these effects. Relational development, collective community reflection, and listening to and learning from community became essential practices to learning community history and knowledge. Such work culminated into the development of a trauma-informed conceptual framework to support educators in engaging students in transformation educational work while also attending to their holistic well-being.

6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work

Our work found that: 1) trauma-informed praxis is important when engaging in community-based learning to support students’ holistic well-being; and 2) intentional community relational, reflection and listening practices are essential to building upon the histories, knowledge and understandings of community to lead to educational transformation and environmental sustainability.

Authors

• Symone Gyles, University of California - Irvine

• Sharim Hannegan-Martinez, University of Michigan