For years, educators have worked to develop an understanding of the impact of trauma on learning, behavior, and relationships and to bring this understanding into their work in the classroom and school. Developing a deep understanding of trauma’s impact helps educators recognize that learning requires safety, trusting relationships, connection, equity and belonging, adaptability, and working together as a school community. This understanding can guide educators in taking actions that help move them closer to the vision of creating a trauma-sensitive learning environment. In trauma-sensitive, safe and supportive schools, students can experience their school as a safe haven, a place where they are greeted warmly by caring adults, can safely engage with peers, can explore their academic interests with curiosity and creativity, and be well supported to find success.
Students in our schools today have weathered multiple events that together may create a sense of instability and uncertainty in their lives. Consider how many young people in our classrooms today experienced a global pandemic that impacted their families’ lives and livelihoods and disrupted their education, the aftermath of which is still being felt. Many students across the country have experienced widespread natural disasters—fires, floods, hundred-year storms– disrupting their sense of safety and community. And most recently, sudden policy changes are being implemented that are particularly stressful for immigrant children and children of immigrants, creating a climate of fear and uncertainty. Additional policy changes are resulting in unemployment, disruptions in health care and food support programs, with more changes threatened. The impact of all of this on families and students can be seen in ongoing reports of schools struggling to meet students’ attendance, behavior, and academic needs. Against this backdrop, schools face growing uncertainty around disruptions in funding for their most vulnerable students. The need for trauma-sensitive, safe and supportive schools is more urgent than ever.
But what is it that educators can do to foster student wellbeing and sense of belonging in the face of the uncertainty and instability that surrounds them?
There is not a “one size fits all” solution to this multitude of need, but research consistently recognizes that safe and supportive learning environments, characterized by positive relationships, are foundational to student wellbeing and academic achievement. (Please see our Tools and Resources Section for more information about how to create trauma-sensitive, safe and supportive learning environments)
In the current moment, a focus on student voice can help support students’ sense of connection and belonging and can help mitigate the uncertainty and anxiety many may be experiencing. Often, adults in schools begin by trying to resolve issues by making decisions themselves, but in trauma-sensitive schools educators ask students about what they need and listen carefully to their responses before taking action. In trauma-sensitive schools, educators provide multiple opportunities to meaningfully engage student voice and by doing so demonstrate respect for the knowledge and perspectives that students have to share about their experiences at school, helping to restore students’ sense of agency.
As we reflect on opportunities for student voice to inform decision-making in our schools, we could be guided by the following questions:
What opportunities currently exist in our school for student voice?
How can teachers in our school be supported to elicit student voice and encourage their participation in problem-solving?
What do we know about what our students need right now?
What do our students say they need in order to do well in school?
How can we learn more about what our students need?
Adults in trauma-sensitive, safe and supportive schools work to become allies to all students and families across lines of difference. They prioritize making sure that each and every student is known, valued, and strongly connected to the school community. Adults work with students to understand what may be interfering with their engagement in learning and their sense of belonging. Together, adults and students collaborate to identify urgencies and possible solutions.Please view this short video that demonstrates one school’s practice of engaging student voice.
From our unique perspective as an organization that works to empower both educator and student voice, we at TLPI see the compelling overlap between what students say they need to do well in school and what educators in a trauma-sensitive, safe and supportive school seek to provide. In our next blog, we will look more closely at how students and trauma-sensitive educators are aligned in their respective visions about what a safe and supportive, racially equitable school can provide, and how elevating student voice can unleash creative planning and sustainable practices as students and educators co-create school culture change.