EPISODE THIRTY-EIGHT
EMILY SANTIAGO (TRAUMA-INFORMED TEACHING)
Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to make your (virtual or in-person) classroom a safe space for students as you embrace the principles of trauma-informed teaching. The special agent assigned to help you with this task is Emily Santiago from the Center for Cognitive Diversity.
How prevalent is trauma in our student population? According to a 2007 study in the Archives of General Psychiatry, two-thirds of children reported at least one traumatic event by the age of sixteen. While we commonly think of trauma as experiencing violence, abuse, neglect, or loss, SAMHSA (The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) has also long defined surviving a life-threatening illness or natural disaster as trauma as well. Schools themselves can be traumatizing spaces, especially for students of color or those that identify as LGBTQ+ as they experience the systematic racism and homophobia that pervades our educational systems, from discriminatory district policy, interactions with staff and peers, or the curriculum itself. All of this to say, anyone working in education will come across a young person dealing with trauma, more so now with the disruption of a global pandemic. Fortunately, there is a growing body of research and many compassionate educators who are working hard to implement trauma-informed teaching practices, such as this episode’s guest and special agent, Emily Santiago. Emily and I spoke over zencastr in June.
In our conversation we discussed:
Emily’s path from being a Montessori aide, to being a teacher, a school counselor, an educational psychologist, and now the Executive Director of the Center for Cognitive Diversity
Emily’s definition of trauma-informed learning
Prioritizing safe and stable relationships for students and staff
The need for organizational self-care to prevent burnout
Being vulnerable and willing to learn along with students
Understanding brain responses to trauma and developmental psychology
Children’s tendency for self-blame in the face of trauma and how that affects behavior and their belief that they’re worthy of love
Why our educational system is not set up to be trauma-informed, but to be punitive
How the deeper work of being trauma-informed is rooted in social justice
The hurdle for trauma-informed teachers: dealing with the shame of realizing that you may have previously unknowingly harmed students
SAMHSA’s six principles of trauma-informed practices: safety, collaboration, trustworthiness, choice, empowerment, social justice
How to start the 2020-21 school year with a trauma-informed lens
Bonnie Bernard’s three factors of resilience: caring relationships, maintaining high expectations, meaningful participation
Finding opportunity to give students agency and control again (ex. free play, collaboration on assignments, opportunities to give back)
What happens when the school was traumatizing students?
Creating schools that don’t re-traumatize and are healing spaces: Reflective Supervision Model
Re-framing trauma away from a deficit lens
Celebrating post-traumatic growth
How to find out more about the Center for Cognitive Diversity
Some further reading/resources:
