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Trauma Informed Pedagogy: The Fundamentals

Overview

Welcome to Trauma Informed Pedagogy: The Fundamentals Module!  

This module was developed in recognition of and response to the rising impacts of complex academic, cultural, socio and geo-political, historical, and personal experiences that create forms of trauma for diverse learners and educators in pedagogical spaces. In line with McMaster’s commitment to Inclusive Excellence, this module aims to provide you a foundational understanding of Trauma-Informed Pedagogy (TIP) and equip you with practical strategies to integrate trauma-informed care practices into your teaching and while designing courses and curriculum.  

Educators play an integral role in responding to and mitigating trauma and re-traumatization in the classroom while managing curriculum, course delivery, student engagement and success. Trauma-informed pedagogies (TIP) offers a flexible and highly adaptable approach to teaching and learning that considers how trauma impacts learners engagement and success through centering student voice, developing critical consciousness around trauma in the classroom, and through re-defining student-teacher relationships to promote wellbeing and healing (Anderson, R., Landy, B., Sanchez, V., 2023; Gentile-Mathew, A., Iturbe-LaGrave, V., 2021; Henshaw, L., 2022).  

The principles and strategies covered in this module are relevant to all educators, across disciplines, and at any level or stage of their teaching career within higher education, whether you teach as a large university, community college, online setting, or in community spaces. Trauma-informed pedagogies encompass diverse practice strategies and best practices; this module will focus on two specific models: trauma-informed care and designing resilient pedagogy.  

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this module, you should be able to: 

  • Identify the key framework of trauma-informed pedagogy, trauma-informed care and its importance and applicability to your curriculum and course delivery approaches  
  • Identify practical strategies to respond to trauma in the classroom and appropriately adjust learning outcomes, course delivery, and assessment for enhanced student engagement and success  
  • Critically reflect on your own teaching practices and experiences of trauma in the classroom and consider how to create psychological safety for oneself as an instructor and for diverse students.  

Reflection Opportunities

Throughout this module, you will find opportunities for reflection to help you connect the concepts of trauma-informed pedagogy to your teaching practice. We encourage you to note down your thoughts in the downloadable and editable Reflection Journal, which you can access below. It is recommended that you download the journal at the beginning and refer to it as you move through the module. 

Reflection Journal 

Further Resources

Additionally, throughout this module, a “further resources” document is referred to, to assist you in carrying forward your learning and to assist you in building a practical toolbox of strategies, surveys, models, examples of implementing TIP. This resource document serves as a repository of mixed resources; guides, sample surveys, matrices, scripts, reflections from educators across departments and schools of study, to draw influence from and integrate into your own teaching and learning practices. You can access this repository here: Further Resources Document and we will have the resource document re-linked throughout each section of the module!   

References

Anderson, R., Landy, B., Sanchez, V. (2023). Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in Higher Education: Considerations for the Future of Research and Practice. Journal of Trauma Studies in Education, 2 (2): 126-140.  

Gentile-Mathew, A., Iturbe-LaGrave, V. (2021) Trauma-Informed Pedagogy and Healing-Centered Engagement, Faculty Teaching Module for Inclusive Teaching Practices. Office of Teaching and Learning, University of Denver. 

Henshaw, L., (2022). Building Trauma-Infored Approaches in Higher Education. Behavioural Sciences, 12, 386; https://doi.org/10.3390/Bs12100368 

What is Trauma-Informed Pedagogy and the Landscape of Trauma in Higher Education

Before we begin, take a moment to reflect, under question 1 in the Reflection Journal 

Journal Question 1: Think about the diversity of your students and your own teaching and learning experiences. Reflect on the following: how do you define trauma and how might trauma manifest and/or present itself within student learning experiences and classroom settings? 

Consider:

  • The demographic makeup of your students 
  • The local and global communities, events, and landscapes that students are exposed to or take part in  
  • Your own definition of trauma   

Now, we ask that you review the following video. Being an educator requires you to become attentive, responsive and adaptable to the ever-changing landscape and external impacts that affect student engagement, success, learning, and classroom climate. These landscapes can create psychological, emotional, and interpersonal impacts on students and instructors, that can be considered a form of trauma, crisis, adversity, and inequity that impacts course delivery, pacing, and evaluation. Trauma-Informed Pedagogies (TIP) offers a set of pedagogical practices and frameworks that effectively respond, at both the individual and systems, policy and practice level, to the impact of trauma in higher education while providing pathways to resiliency.   

Reflection

Having watched the video and had a chance to reflect preliminary, open this Reflection Journal and visit question 2 on the worksheet!  

Journal Question 2: How does the awareness of the clinical and social phenomena’s of trauma assist in driving inclusive excellence in your teaching and learning methods? Hat informs your own definition and understanding of trauma-informed practice? Helpful link if you are new to inclusive excellence: The Inclusive Excellence Framework at McMaster

It should be of note that this worksheet is not an assessed component of the module, but rather an opportunity for you to reflect on and apply your understanding of the content.  

References

Anderson, R., Landy, B., Sanchez, V. (2023). Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in Higher Education: Considerations for the Future of Research and Practice. Journal of Trauma Studies in Education, 2 (2): 126-140.  

Gentile-Mathew, A., Iturbe-LaGrave, V. (2021) Trauma-Informed Pedagogy and Healing-Centered Engagement, Faculty Teaching Module for Inclusive Teaching Practices. Office of Teaching and Learning, University of Denver. Trauma-Informed Pedagogy | Denver 

Henshaw, L., (2022). Building Trauma-Infored Approaches in Higher Education. Behavioural Sciences, 12, 386; https://doi.org/10.3390/Bs12100368   

Johnson, N., & Gianvito, I. (2022). Cultivating Trauma-Informed Spaces in Education: Promising Practices Manual. Trauma-Informed Education, 1, December 2022, https://source.sheridancollege.ca/centres_sgg_2023_trauma_education/1 

Stromberg, E. (2023). Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in Higher Education: a faculty guide for teaching and learning. New York, Routledge, 2023, DOI: 10.4324/9781003260776  

Thompson, P., & Carello, J. (2022). Trauma-Informed Pedagogies: A Guide for responding to crisis and inequality in higher education. Switzerland, AG, Springer Nature, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92705-9 

Personal Dimensions: Exploring Your Approach to Trauma-Informed Care

In this section we review the principles and core values of trauma informed education and care, from a standpoint of equity. We have included further guides and resource books in the reference section below, should you wish to delve deeper into the personal dimensions of trauma-informed care.  

As you move through the video, this section of the module will unpack each of the core values in detail, offering reflective questions to explore your personal approaches trauma informed education and care. We encourage you while engaging with the video, to make notes in your reflection journal to support active learning and reflections that resonate with you.  

Reflection

Please feel free to take a moment to reflect on macro and mezzo level entry points into TIP! In the Reflection Journal, under question 3, we have a list of reflective questions for you to consider when thinking through your macro and mezzo level positionality! 

References

Iturbe-LaGrave, V. (2020) Responding to Trauma in the Classroom. Office of Teaching and Learning, University of Denver. Retrieved from: Responding to Trauma in the Classroom – Office of Teaching & Learning   

Johnson, N., & Gianvito, I. (2022). Cultivating Trauma-Informed Spaces in Education: Promising Practices Manual. Trauma-Informed Education, 1, December 2022, https://source.sheridancollege.ca/centres_sgg_2023_trauma_education/1 

Stromberg, E. (2023). Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in Higher Education: a faculty guide for teaching and learning. New York, Routledge, 2023, DOI: 10.4324/9781003260776  

Thompson, P., & Carello, J. (2022). Trauma-Informed Pedagogies: A Guide for responding to crisis and inequality in higher education. Switzerland, AG, Springer Nature, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92705-9 

Instructional Dimensions: Responding to Trauma in the Classroom and Creating Brave Spaces

Whether you are new to TIP or a seasoned practitioner, there are key tips and strategies to keep in mind when engaging with TIP, at the instructional level. Instructional levels and dimensions represent the interpersonal instructional responsibilities of an education. This includes but is not limited to, proactive and reactive strategies to cultivating and mitigating classroom culture, interpersonal communication, preparatory work in creating syllabi, evaluation, engagement, and activities for the semester and more.  In this section instructional dimensions in the form of “tips” and strategies, organized by the 6 core values of TIP. As we list tips in the video, we will also refer to guides, surveys, scripts, and practical tools in our further resource document, if you want to delve in deeper.  

We encourage you while engaging with the video, to make notes in your reflection journal to support active learning and reflections that resonate with you.  

Reflection

We know we threw a lot at you in this section! We encourage you to take a gander at the trauma informed teaching checklist to celebrate the things you are already doing and to also provide you further strategies and tips to think about and integrate. You can find the checklist in the Reflection Journal under question 4. The checklist is also in our Further Resources Document 

References

Iturbe-LaGrave, V. (2020) Responding to Trauma in the Classroom. Office of Teaching and Learning, University of Denver. Retrieved from: Responding to Trauma in the Classroom – Office of Teaching & Learning   

Johnson, N., & Gianvito, I. (2022). Cultivating Trauma-Informed Spaces in Education: Promising Practices Manual. Trauma-Informed Education, 1, December 2022, https://source.sheridancollege.ca/centres_sgg_2023_trauma_education/1 

Stromberg, E. (2023). Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in Higher Education: a faculty guide for teaching and learning. New York, Routledge, 2023, DOI: 10.4324/9781003260776  

Thompson, P., & Carello, J. (2022). Trauma-Informed Pedagogies: A Guide for responding to crisis and inequality in higher education. Switzerland, AG, Springer Nature, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92705-9 

Design Practices: Developing a Resilient and Flexible Pedagogical Approach

We want to offer an additional framework and strategy that bolsters resilience in your curriculum, class content and delivery; the framework is called resilient pedagogy. Resilient pedagogy is not to be mistaken for static and unchangeable curriculum design but rather speaks to strategies and methods that allow the classroom content, delivery, and evaluation methods to be flexibly adaptable to the needs and environmental pressures of learning while remaining steadfast and consistent in one’s learning outcomes.  Check out the last video of this module, below.  

If you love to listen and learn instead? Check out this weekly podcast called the resilient pedagogy podcast by Dr. Thurston, goes through chapters of the resilient pedagogy book with various instructors, focus on topics like creating adaptable courses, integrating whole person experiences, understanding why students can’t focus and what can be done about it, optimal adult education and online learning , resilient design, unlocking student engagement and more: Resilient Pedagogy with Travis Thurston • Resilient Pedagogy   

Optional Activity

We have one more opportunity to carry your learning forward!  

We invite you to take a gander at your most recently designed syllabi or a sample syllabus from your faculty and department. Examine the course design elements; student engagement, activities, evaluations, learning materials and modalities. To assist in examination, the Course activity Matrix tool referred to in the module may be of assistance, so we have hyperlinked it here:  

Think through some ideas for the following questions: Course Activity Matrix   

We are also providing you a blank matrix, if this is more accessible to map your ideas: Blank Course Activity Matrix 

  1. What are elements that can be infused with adaptability, flexibility, and creativity?
  2. Are there learning activities, materials, and modalities that could be shifted if needed and how?
  3. What tools, resources and software’s might you need to ensure endurance?
  4. At the end of thinking through some changes, reflect back on the original purpose of the course and it’s associated learning outcomes. With potential flexibility, are your learning outcomes still achievable?

References

Carleton (2023). Resilient Pedagogy. Perlman Center for Teaching and Learning. [Webpage] Retrieved from: Resilient Pedagogy – Learning and Teaching Center – Carleton College  

Gardiner, E. (2020). Resilient Pedagogy for the age of disruption: A Conversation with Josh Eyler. Top Ha. [Blog]. Retrieved from: Resilient Pedagogy for the Age of Disruption: A Conversation with Josh Eyler | Top Hat 

Grand Valley State University (2021). Resilient Pedagogy. [Webpage]. Retrieved from: Resilient Pedagogy – Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center – Grand Valley State University  

Santoso Chow, R., Ming Lam, C., King, I. (2020). Crisis Resilience Pedagogy (CRP) for Teaching and Learning. 2020 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering, pp 384-391.  

Thurston, T. (2023) Resilient Pedagogy Podcast. Resilient Pedagogy. Dr. Thurston. Podcast, Spotify. Retrieved from: Resilient Pedagogy with Travis Thurston • Resilient Pedagogy  

Thurston, T., Lundstrom, K., Gonzalez, C. (2021). Resilient Pedagogy and Self-Determination: Unlocking Student Engagement in Uncertain Times. Chapter 1. Resilient Pedagogy. Utah State University, 13-36.  

Watson, A. (2020). Flexible, resilient pedagogy: How to plan activities that work for in-person, remote and hybrid instruction. Truth for Teacher Podcast 

Summary

In this module, you explored the foundations concepts of Trauma-informed pedagogy, specifically models of trauma-informed education and care and resilient pedagogy. Trauma-informed pedagogical principles and strategies are pivotal in fostering inclusive, equitable, and flexible learning environments that remain responsive to unforeseen circumstances, student stress and trauma, and unprecedented events. You also explored the foundational frameworks and practical strategies that challenge static teaching and learning paradigms, shifting and making rooms for the myriads of circumstances, personally, socially, and societally, that may negatively impact student learning, engagement and success.  

Additionally, you engage in critical self-reflection, creating opportunities to consider how your own teaching can become resilient in design and responsive to trauma. Through the integration of these principles, you can create an adaptable and accessible learning space where students feel safe, brave, and engaged in their learning. As noted in the beginning of this module, by the end of this module you should be able to:  

  • Identify the key framework of trauma-informed pedagogy, trauma-informed care and its importance and applicability to your curriculum and course delivery approaches  
  • Identify practical strategies to respond to trauma in the classroom and appropriately adjust learning outcomes, course delivery, and assessment for enhanced student engagement and success  
  • Critically reflect on your own teaching practices, experiences of trauma in the classroom and consider how to practices psychologically safe for oneself as an instructor and for diverse students. 

Thank you for engaging with this module and we hope it has inspired you to create a more inclusive and flexible educational environment that is responsive to the ever-changing landscape that student learn and live within. Recognizing that your pedagogical journey does not end here, we encourage you to keep reflecting, learning and striving to create classrooms where everyone can thrive. There are several more modules to engage with to carry your forward learning and drive holistic methods to your teaching and learning practices. Find out more modules here: MacPherson Learning Catalogue  and access our resource document here: Further Resources Document 

Further Learning / Additional Resources

Arbour, M., Walker, K., & Houston, J.  (2024). Trauma-Informed Pedagogy: Instructional Strategies to Support Student Success. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 69 (Vol 1 January/February 2024): 25-32.  

Clum, K., Ebersole, L., Wicks, D., & Shea, M. (2022). A case study approach to resilient pedagogy during times of crisis. Online Learning, 26(2), 323-342.   

Harrison, N., Burke, J., & Clarke, I. (2023) Risky teaching: developing a trauma-informed pedagogy for higher education, Teaching in Higher Education, 28:1, 180-194, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2020.1786046  

QMCommunications. (2024). An Instructors Guide for Implementing Trauma-informed Pedagogy in Higher Education. [Youtube Video]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZb7FWn3JMw  

Janapati, G., & Vijayalakshmi, V. (2024). Creating a resilient pedagogy: character strength intervention for aspiring educators. Acta Psychologica, 246 (104465): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104465.  

Masland, L. (2021). Chapter 1- Resilient Pedagogy and Self-Determination: Unlocking Student Engagement in Uncertain Times. In Thurston, T. N., Lundstrom, K., & González, C. (Eds.), Resilient pedagogy: Practical teaching strategies to overcome distance, disruption, and distraction (pp.13-36). Utah State University. https://doi.org/10.26079/a516-fb24. 

Watson, A. (2021). Ep202 Resilient Pedagogy: how to plan activities for in-person, remote, AND hybrid instruction. [YouTube Video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgovA0lOxKw 

References

Anderson, R., Landy, B., Sanchez, V. (2023). Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in Higher Education: Considerations for the Future of Research and Practice. Journal of Trauma Studies in Education, 2 (2): 126-140.  

Gentile-Mathew, A., Iturbe-LaGrave, V. (2021) Trauma-Informed Pedagogy and Healing-Centered Engagement, Faculty Teaching Module for Inclusive Teaching Practices. Office of Teaching and Learning, University of Denver. 

Henshaw, L., (2022). Building Trauma-Infored Approaches in Higher Education. Behavioural Sciences, 12, 386; https://doi.org/10.3390/Bs12100368