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Trauma Responsive Educational Practices: Helping Students Cope and Learn
No educator can ignore the effects of traumatic stressors on students. This is especially true for those in schools serving racially and ethnically marginalized or low-income children. Every day, millions of students in the United States go to school weighed down by interpersonal traumas, community traumas, and the traumatic effects of historical and contemporary race-based oppression. A wide range of adverse childhood events—including physical, verbal, emotional, and sexual abuse; chronic bullying; community or domestic violence; and food and housing insecurity—can lead to a host of negative outcomes. However, when schools provide developmentally supportive responses to these challenges, post-traumatic growth becomes possible. In Trauma Responsive Educational Practices, Micere Keels * examines the neurobiology of trauma;
* presents mindfulness strategies that strengthen student self-regulation and extend professional longevity; and
* demonstrates how to build pedagogically caring relationships, psychologically safe discipline, and an emotionally safe classroom learning climate. Keels also shows educators how to attend to equity and use trauma as a critical lens through which to plan instruction and respond to challenging situations with coregulation. It's important to understand that trauma is subjective and complex, treatment is not prescriptive, and recovery takes time. This book helps educators support students on that road―not merely to survive trauma but to focus on their strengths and flourish with effective coping skills.
* presents mindfulness strategies that strengthen student self-regulation and extend professional longevity; and
* demonstrates how to build pedagogically caring relationships, psychologically safe discipline, and an emotionally safe classroom learning climate. Keels also shows educators how to attend to equity and use trauma as a critical lens through which to plan instruction and respond to challenging situations with coregulation. It's important to understand that trauma is subjective and complex, treatment is not prescriptive, and recovery takes time. This book helps educators support students on that road―not merely to survive trauma but to focus on their strengths and flourish with effective coping skills.
185 pages, Paperback
Published March 17, 2023
3 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 1, 2023
Some very useful and helpful information, as well as some strategies I already practice. Heavy emphasis on mindfulness, which is interesting but I’d like additional approaches to try with students.
The appendices in the back are also helpful. I marked a lot of text in this book; it was a great foundation for building my knowledge of trauma-informed educational practices. A strong 4.5/5 stars.
The appendices in the back are also helpful. I marked a lot of text in this book; it was a great foundation for building my knowledge of trauma-informed educational practices. A strong 4.5/5 stars.
August 3, 2023
"Behavioral dysregulation" (e.g., what many educators perceive as perceive as willful, off-task, defiant behaviors) is not a choice our students make. As trauma-informed educators, we have to understand "how challenging behaviors can originate from toxic stress and trauma" (p. 4) and respond with a co-regulation approach.
In the first few chapters, the author, Dr. Keels, clearly defines terms like positive stress, tolerable stress, toxic stress in ways I hadn't thought about before. She also explains how our brains are shaped by our environments and how this may contribute to how our students respond to particular situations at school.
Most of the book, though, is about what we can actually do at the classroom and (to some extent) the school building level to create "pedagogically-caring relationships" and safe environments for our students to learn. LOVED that Dr. Keels starts this work with a chapter entitled "Mindfulness for Well-Being and Professional Longevity." We have to be engaged in our own mindfulness practice if we are going to host environments that rely on students being mindful. Dr. Keels continues this conversation throughout the book, reminding us to think not just reflectively but also reflexively.
While this book is only 143 pages, Dr. Keels provides a lot of content that needs to be returned to over and over again - preferably in discussion with colleagues and school leadership. Highly recommend as a book for PLCs to read over time. Some of this content may already feel familiar, but Keels' organization of the book (take a look at the chapter titles and how they progress) and the language she uses to describe and explain concepts and recommendations may be a good reminder for those of us who have already done some work in this area - a reminder that helps us revisit our own mindfulness work and that of our students to fine tune or lift what's already happening.
One wish is that there'd been more content specifically geared towards building and district level leaders. That might be the next book. In the meantime, I would encourage leaders to read this with teachers and to consistently ask, "What do you need?" and "What do we need to do to support this work at the building level?"
The author, Dr. Micere Keels, is the founding director of the Trauma Responsive Educational Practices Project at the University of Chicago.
In the first few chapters, the author, Dr. Keels, clearly defines terms like positive stress, tolerable stress, toxic stress in ways I hadn't thought about before. She also explains how our brains are shaped by our environments and how this may contribute to how our students respond to particular situations at school.
Most of the book, though, is about what we can actually do at the classroom and (to some extent) the school building level to create "pedagogically-caring relationships" and safe environments for our students to learn. LOVED that Dr. Keels starts this work with a chapter entitled "Mindfulness for Well-Being and Professional Longevity." We have to be engaged in our own mindfulness practice if we are going to host environments that rely on students being mindful. Dr. Keels continues this conversation throughout the book, reminding us to think not just reflectively but also reflexively.
While this book is only 143 pages, Dr. Keels provides a lot of content that needs to be returned to over and over again - preferably in discussion with colleagues and school leadership. Highly recommend as a book for PLCs to read over time. Some of this content may already feel familiar, but Keels' organization of the book (take a look at the chapter titles and how they progress) and the language she uses to describe and explain concepts and recommendations may be a good reminder for those of us who have already done some work in this area - a reminder that helps us revisit our own mindfulness work and that of our students to fine tune or lift what's already happening.
One wish is that there'd been more content specifically geared towards building and district level leaders. That might be the next book. In the meantime, I would encourage leaders to read this with teachers and to consistently ask, "What do you need?" and "What do we need to do to support this work at the building level?"
The author, Dr. Micere Keels, is the founding director of the Trauma Responsive Educational Practices Project at the University of Chicago.
November 7, 2024
Great ideas and well written. Very practical to use, with lots of examples and ideas. Very insightful to understand how trauma affects those and the huge need to feel safe, heard, and seen. Anyone who has teens, works with teens/children, this would be a great book to read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews