Bringing Trauma Informed Pedagogy to Campus: Exploring Strategies for Working with College Students

Location

Session 2 Presentations - College Students & Well-Being

Proposal Track

Research Project

Session Format

Presentation

Abstract

With the advent of twin pandemics of COVID-19,college professors have been confronted with their responsibility for the physical, mental and socio-emotional well-being of learners.

Students dealt with the situation in a number of ways: some students quickly transitioned home. Other students (POC and low SES) seemed to disappear. Whatever personal solutions they worked out in response to the pandemic, there was some degree of trauma as their lives were not going as planned.

As students (and faculty) return to campus, we recognize we have all experienced fear of the unknown (Carelton, 2016), a lack of control of our external and internal environments (Pagan, 2018): our worlds turned upside-down.

Our presentation focuses on the impacts of trauma on the brain (Trayser, 2016, Blaustein & Kinniburgh, 2010) & on mental health and cognitive development (Blodgett, 2013), helping professors recognize characteristics and behaviors of traumatized students (Alexander, 2019; Finkelhor, Shattuck, Turner, and Hamby, 2015) Finally, this presentation will also present ways to engage in trauma-informed pedagogy (Gresham, 2017, Kavenaugh, 2016) to support student learning in the college setting.

Keywords

Trauma-Informed; college students; SEL learning

Professional Bio

Regina Rahimi is a professor in the department of Middle and Secondary Education at Georgia Southern University, Armstrong Campus in Savannah, Georgia. Her current research involves examination of trauma informed pedagogy and internship models in teacher preparation. Delores D. Liston, Ph.D., LMSW is a Professor of Curriculum and Foundations at Georgia Southern University. Her research and teaching interests focus on the application of philosophical, ethical and feminist understandings to education. She has recently published on topics such as trauma-informed pedagogy, culturally responsive pedagogy and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She is co-editor of the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

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Oct 8th, 9:45 AM Oct 8th, 10:55 AM

Bringing Trauma Informed Pedagogy to Campus: Exploring Strategies for Working with College Students

Session 2 Presentations - College Students & Well-Being

With the advent of twin pandemics of COVID-19,college professors have been confronted with their responsibility for the physical, mental and socio-emotional well-being of learners.

Students dealt with the situation in a number of ways: some students quickly transitioned home. Other students (POC and low SES) seemed to disappear. Whatever personal solutions they worked out in response to the pandemic, there was some degree of trauma as their lives were not going as planned.

As students (and faculty) return to campus, we recognize we have all experienced fear of the unknown (Carelton, 2016), a lack of control of our external and internal environments (Pagan, 2018): our worlds turned upside-down.

Our presentation focuses on the impacts of trauma on the brain (Trayser, 2016, Blaustein & Kinniburgh, 2010) & on mental health and cognitive development (Blodgett, 2013), helping professors recognize characteristics and behaviors of traumatized students (Alexander, 2019; Finkelhor, Shattuck, Turner, and Hamby, 2015) Finally, this presentation will also present ways to engage in trauma-informed pedagogy (Gresham, 2017, Kavenaugh, 2016) to support student learning in the college setting.