Trauma, including abandonment, neglect, poverty, or abuse, affects students. Because of this, a classroom community is vulnerable to the sheer unpredictability of behaviors. Students who have experienced trauma need support in order to create a classroom community where they can thrive and learn. This study examines a Whole-Child Approach…

Previous research indicates pandemics have a traumatic effect on individuals. The COVID-19 pandemic has been traumatic for all students of all races and socioeconomic households. The pandemic has, however, intensified racial trauma by exacerbating racial disparities already existing in American society. Racial trauma has been linked to poor…

Refugee children are a significant part of contemporary Canadian classrooms. Children who have fled their homes as refugees have experienced trauma and bear the effects of it socially, emotionally and academically. My study identifies trauma-sensitive strategies that music educators in Ontario are using to support refugee students from…

It is vital for educators to be aware of how traumatic experiences affect today's students, yet few teachers learn the tools needed to successfully teach these students. This book highlights how English Language Arts teachers, who are typically not licensed or specifically trained to work with trauma issues, can design and implement instruction…

Anxiety and depression have increased for adolescent youth, particularly since the pandemic. For certain students, this anxiety and depression connects to trauma because of inequity and bias in schools. This qualitative study examined successful urban middle school teachers and their perspectives on conditions they created for hope in their…

Current research around the middle grades has brought a heightened attention by teachers, policymakers, and researchers recognizing that this stage is a time when a students' health and social and emotional well-being directly impacts their academic progress. To date, school leaders and teachers have not been well served by explicit resources for…

Research has shown that individuals resettled as refugees are represented as passive victims who are dependent on government aid, and are often associated with trauma (MacDonald, 2015; Shapiro & MacDonald, 2017). This should not undermine the traumatic and difficult experiences that people resettled as refugees undergo, but a focus on such…

This article unpacks existing laws and disciplinary policies like "zero tolerance" and "disturbing schools" that criminalize youth behaviors in public schools and explores their roots in U.S. racialized histories using a critical carceral studies framework. Carceral studies scholars critique the punitive capitalist apparatus…

The effects of childhood trauma are evident in urban classrooms today and adversely affect student achievement. The evidence of exposure to trauma is disruptive behavior, often resulting in a suspension from school. The school social worker or counselor is often viewed as the person responsible for implementing strategies that change student…

The refugee has become part of the scholarly discourse of schooling, largely centring considerations of psychological trauma that refugee children may have experienced. However, the role that schools play in creating, replicating, or transforming a national discourse of refugees--and by extension, (inter)national identity and citizenship--at the…

Presidential elections have been described as "the quintessential example of teaching social studies" due to the authentic connections teachers can make between the formal curriculum and the political world in which students live. Yet current events often do not fit neatly into state curriculum standards and, as a result, some teachers…

Psychological trauma is swiftly becoming one of the most significant public health concerns and obstacles to effective education in the current teaching climate. This paper responds to my experiences as both a secondary English teacher and registered psychologist, examining the potential utility of trauma literature in the English classroom for…

Students in the middle grades experience tremendous development in various domains. However, childhood trauma can significantly impede this development, further exacerbating the functioning of our most vulnerable student populations. This article aims to describe the use of trauma-informed teaching as a form of middle-level, social justice…

Forced migration generally refers to groups of people who are displaced by conflicts related to natural or environmental disasters, or war. This conceptual article takes up the topic of teaching children who have experienced forced migration due to war from ethnic or religious conflict, and the stories of trauma they may bring into a classroom.…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on education and the ways in which teachers engage their students. Given the individual and collective traumatic nature and impact of this global health crisis, we provide specific strategies for addressing the needs of young adolescents while teaching remotely. Specifically, we posit that…