While trauma-informed practices assume that educators care for their students, they should never require that educators sacrifice their own health or well-being in the process. Moreover, educators may have their own experiences of acute trauma or chronic traumatic stress that shape their ability to respond to students. As individual educators adopt trauma-informed practices in their classrooms, institutions can and should work to provide structural support and resources for this work.
Many of the principles that guide trauma-informed classroom practice--especially reducing uncertainty, amplifying meaning and purpose, and cultivating connection--can help to repair departmental and faculty/staff communities frayed by the demands of the last three years. Likewise, we want to highlight Aimi Hamraie’s model of “accessibility agreements” as one strategy instructors can use to navigate between the support they give students and the boundaries they set for themselves.
In a series of Twitter posts, disability studies scholar Aimi Hamraie outlines their approach to making their classroom accessible. As Hamraie notes, making a classroom truly accessible means going beyond the legal minimums prescribed by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Yet, as Hamraie observes, instructors may not have the resources (time, energy, institutional support) to meet students’ needs beyond the ADA’s minimum requirements. In this situation, Hamraie recommends that instructors adopt a “consent-centered model” in which instructors describe the support they can or cannot offer, based on the resources available to them, and accounting for their own needs. They also recommend inviting the class to discuss their needs and limitations openly, so that collectively the group can determine appropriate support and shared norms.
Instructors adopting trauma-informed practices can learn from Hamraie’s approach. Given their current institutional position or the resources available to them, they may not be able to adopt all the trauma-informed practices they would like. Being clear about what they can or cannot do allows instructors to exercise necessary control over their workload. Likewise, as Hamraie notes, instructors are not solely responsible for creating a healthy and positive environment for students. “It may not be possible to meet every request,” Hamraie writes. ”Sometimes we need help in creating access. Sometimes our institutions do not give us enough resources, resulting in injustices.”
Make time each day to learn about self-healing or coping with stress.
Look for others to connect with, to hear your concerns.
Create and reflect on goals that will improve the future.
Regularly capture what you are grateful for.
Begin to recognize the choice to expend energy in stressful situations.
Remind yourself of what you have accomplished in connection to your values.
Prepare alternative options for classroom situations when you can predict variability.
Give attention to the act of moving forward, rather than the results.
Presume others act out of stress, not with bad intentions.
Look around to give support to friends who may not give any signs of their struggles.
Imad, M. (2021). Transcending adversity: Trauma-informed educational development. To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, 39(3), 1-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/tia.17063888.0039.301
In Transcending adversity: Trauma-informed educational development, the guidance from Mays Imad connects specific strategies to five key principles of a trauma-informed approach to development. These are the creation of safety with a reduction of uncertainty, the strengthening of trust with thoughtful communication, the creation of meaning with a refocus of goals, the cultivation of community with mindful relationships, along with a focus on the well-being of self and others (9-14).