With accessible strategies grounded in trauma-informed education and positive psychology, this book equips teachers to support all students, particularly the most vulnerable. It will help them to build their resilience, increase their motivation and engagement, and fulfil their full learning potential within the classroom. Trauma-informed, strengths-based classrooms are built upon three core aims: to support children to build their self-regulatory capacities, to build a sense of relatedness and belonging at school, and to integrate wellbeing principles that nurture growth and identify strengths. Taking conventional approaches to trauma one step further, teachers may create a classroom environment which helps students to meet their own needs in a healthy way and progress academically. Based on the successful Berry Street education strategies pioneered by the authors, this book also includes comprehensive case studies, learning points and opportunities for self-reflection, fully supporting teachers to implement these strategies within the classroom.

Trauma is a public health crisis. High rates of trauma exposure among youth and the impact that experiences of trauma can have on students’ psychosocial and academic outcomes are well-established. These traumatic events do not live outside of the scope of schools and teaching. As children and teachers develop communities within their classrooms and schools, trauma comes with those who have experienced it, whether invited or not (Bien & Dutro, 2014). This extended time that teachers spend with students inherently provides opportunity to witness students’ lived experiences (Caringi et al., 2015; Motta, 2012). These experiences capture many facets of students’ lives, including traumatic events; however, many teachers indicate that they feel unprepared to address students who have experienced trauma in meaningful and sustainable ways (Caringi et al, 2015). In response, many schools and districts have adopted trauma-informed practices (Overstreet & Chafouleas, 2016). This text addresses the gap in the literature in embedding trauma-informed practices into pre-service teacher education. This text provides examples of the various ways educator preparation faculty are developing and implementing trauma-informed practices across their programs, instituting broader curricular shifts to incorporate trauma-informed practices, shifting pedagogical practices to include trauma-informed practices and collaborating across disciplines in order to ensure that teacher candidates are thoughtfully prepared to address students’ needs and create classroom environments that are equitable, safe and sustainable for students and teachers.

Building on comprehensive research conducted in US schools, this accessible volume offers an effective model of school leadership to develop and implement school-wide, trauma-responsive approaches to student discipline. Recognizing that challenging student behaviours are often rooted in early experiences of trauma, the volume builds on a model from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to walk readers through the processes of realizing, recognizing, responding to, and resisting the impacts of trauma in school contexts. Research and interviews model an educational reform process and explain how a range of differentiated interventions including Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports (PBIS), social-emotional learning (SEL), restorative justice, and family engagement can be used to boost student resilience and pro-social behaviour. Practical steps are supported by current theory, resources, and stories of implementation from superintendents, principals, and teachers. This text will benefit school leaders, teachers, and counsellors with an interest in restorative student discipline, emotional and behavioural difficulties in young people, and PreK-12 education more broadly. Those interested in school psychology, trauma studies, and trauma counselling with children and adolescents will also benefit from the volume.

Trauma is a public health crisis. High rates of trauma exposure among youth and the impact that experiences of trauma can have on students' psychosocial and academic outcomes are well-established. These traumatic events do not live outside of the scope of schools and teaching. As children and teachers develop communities within their classrooms and schools, trauma comes with those who have experienced it, whether invited or not (Bien & Dutro, 2014). This extended time that teachers spend with students inherently provides opportunity to witness students' lived experiences (Caringi et al., 2015; Motta, 2012). These experiences capture many facets of students' lives, including traumatic events; however, many teachers indicate that they feel unprepared to address students who have experienced trauma in meaningful and sustainable ways (Caringi et al, 2015). In response, many schools and districts have adopted trauma-informed practices (Overstreet & Chafouleas, 2016). This text addresses the gap in the literature in embedding trauma-informed practices into pre-service teacher education. This text provides examples of the various ways educator preparation faculty are developing and implementing trauma-informed practices across their programs, instituting broader curricular shifts to incorporate trauma-informed practices, shifting pedagogical practices to include trauma-informed practices and collaborating across disciplines in order to ensure that teacher candidates are thoughtfully prepared to address students' needs and create classroom environments that are equitable, safe and sustainable for students and teachers.

The vision and development of this edited text are driven by a deep desire to ensure that teacher candidates are thoughtfully prepared to more fully address students’ needs and create classroom environments that are safe for students and teachers. Specifically, this text will provide an understanding of how educator preparation programs are providing teacher candidates with the knowledge and skills to effectively utilize an asset-based approach to foster resiliency skills that support P-12 students who have or are experiencing trauma. This text considers how programs are developing equity-focused content, curriculum, & pedagogy to ensure teacher candidates can integrate trauma-informed practices as well as develop their own resiliency skills. This resource highlights important and relevant tools, strategies, and approaches for preparing future teachers to implement traumainformed practices within their classrooms. In recent years, much attention and resources focused on preparing teachers to more comprehensively address, acknowledge, and understand childhood trauma and the impact it has on students’ lives inside and outside of the classroom. This text will be of interest to all those working in institutes of higher education, alternative licensure programs, and organizations, public schools, and districts involved with the preparation of teachers and/or professional development of in-service educators. It has the potential to serve as a catalyst for teacher preparation programs to more intentionally integrate trauma-informed practices in meaningful ways and contribute to a glaring gap within the literature focused on the systematic ways in which childhood trauma and resiliency development are being addressed in the preparation of teachers.

Educators must both respond to the impact of trauma, and prevent trauma at school. Trauma-informed initiatives tend to focus on the challenging behaviors of students and ascribe them to circumstances that students are facing outside of school. This approach ignores the reality that inequity itself causes trauma, and that schools often heighten inequities when implementing trauma-informed practices that are not based in educational equity. In this fresh look at trauma-informed practice, Alex Shevrin Venet urges educators to shift equity to the center as they consider policies and professional development. Using a framework of six principles for equity-centered trauma-informed education, Venet offers practical action steps that teachers and school leaders can take from any starting point, using the resources and influence at their disposal to make shifts in practice, pedagogy, and policy. Overthrowing inequitable systems is a process, not an overnight change. But transformation is possible when educators work together, and teachers can do more than they realize from within their own classrooms.

Children in all educational levels are vulnerable to abuse, neglect, bullying, violence in their homes and neighborhoods, and other traumatic life events; research shows that upwards of 70% of children in schools report experiencing at least one traumatic event before age 16. Though school social workers are on the front lines of service delivery through their work with children who face social and emotional struggles in the pursuit of education, there are scant resources to assist them in the creation of trauma-informed schools. This book presents an overview of the impact of trauma on children and adolescents, as well as interventions for direct practice and collaboration with teachers, families, and communities. Social work practitioners and students will learn distinct examples of how to implement the ten principles of trauma-informed services in their schools; provide students with trauma-informed care that is grounded in the principles of safety, connection, and emotional regulation; and develop beneficial skills for self-care in their work.