In higher education environments, there is a high probability that some learners will have lived experience of conflict, violence, terrorism, forced exile, climate-related natural disasters and other significant human rights events. Human rights education (HRE) typically engages learners with these and many other complex and emotionally…

How do educators talk about trauma with young children? Specifically, how do they address children's secondhand experiences of crimes against humanity? In this article, Cara E. Furman argues that classrooms for young children must witness these experiences. A genre of picture books that Furman terms "eavesdropping texts" offer testimony…

Trigger warnings have become a hotly contested practice in higher education, including within the field of social work. Learning to become a social worker can be a demanding process that requires in-depth study about often socially taboo and traumatic topics. The learning process can, understandably, cause discomfort that may result in a…

Turning to key texts of Paulo Freire and Jacques Lacan, this paper argues that the experience organized in critical pedagogy can be rearticulated on the basis of a structural-practical connection to psychoanalysis. I pay specific attention to the methodical parallels that develop between the accounts of the psychoanalytic and pedagogical…

U.S. white nationalism is virulent and escalating, expressing itself through a variety of digital and media spheres, violent assaults on Black, Jewish, Muslim, migrant and indigenous communities, and via increasing participation and alliance-building in mainstream politics. Notwithstanding the public presence, impact, and persistence of white…

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…

Among the lessons that emerged after the recent presidential election is a recognition that teachers are generally not prepared to address the intersections of healing, politics, and emotion in classrooms. Now, more than ever, English educators must address trauma in classrooms, while also recognizing how individuals and groups are positioned…

This article examines the possibilities and limits of strategies directed toward racialized healing amidst declarations of pandemics and legislative attacks on public school teachers. We question what these strategies take as a self-evident truth: that race and racism can be conceptualized in terms of health and transparently addressed through…

This paper gives an ethnographic account of a contemplative class at an elite university in the US. The contemplative class, which incorporates mindfulness-based practices, took on the function of unravelling time, and of challenging the credit-oriented culture of the university. The opening up of time and credits allows for a safe communal space…

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the troubling fact that many students struggle to pay attention to literacy learning while they are in situations of extreme duress. This duress did not begin with pandemic, nor will it end with it. Neither is duress distributed at random; those negatively affected by the nation's prejudices, as a general rule,…

We are living through a time of uncertainty and change in which our educational priorities can be re-ordered. A time during which what it means to teach and learn in theology and religious studies can be a vivid and powerful resource to our wider contexts. We are living in a time of context collapse. Narrative is one key route to engaging and…

Although not a new phenomenon, the prevalence of student trauma has recently garnered national attention. This ongoing public health crisis hinders learning, connection, and the well-being of entire school communities. Often on the margins of conversations surrounding student needs or unable to access educational documents, music teachers seeking…

Wrestling with issues of racism and colonization in the classroom requires significant nuance from dominantly positioned educators. In this article, we weave together a narrative unpacking of an uncomfortable experience in a graduate level class with an exploration of relevant theoretical literature. Our reflection on practice takes up the…

This article explores the powerful influence that trauma can have on individuals and the ways in which this influence might be addressed in the development of adult religious education. It asks how we can facilitate deepening a person's relationship with God and others when trauma has damaged a person's capacity to relate. Suggestions are made for…

Although development of trauma-informed pedagogy for elementary and secondary classrooms has developed significantly, a dearth of resources for trauma-informed andragogy in graduate theological classrooms remains. Theological classrooms are a unique context in which many students and professors carry experiences of trauma with them. This article…