Empowering Instructors: A Handbook of Trauma-Informed Feminist Pedagogy Resources for the Instruction of Traumatic Historical Topics

Project Team

Greta Kroeker Picture of Rebecca MacAlpine

Greta Kroeker, History and Gender and Social Justice

Rebecca MacAlpine, Centre for Teaching Excellence

(Project timeline: September 2023 -  August 2024)

Project Summary

Our first LITE grant explored how the incorporation of trauma informed care (TIC) and feminist pedagogies (FP) into the university history classroom supported the socio-emotional wellbeing and resilience of students learning about traumatic histories. Through a combination of innovative assessments and engagements that reflected TIC and FP strategies to empower voice, choice, and agency, this study used the history classroom to offer students multiple entry points to engage with the subject of gender-based violence in early modern Europe.  

The proposed second LITE grant will expand on our initial work to create instructional documentation to develop a “tool kit” on trauma-informed feminist pedagogy (TIFP). This innovative pedagogical model, which combines TIC and FP, will support the development of safe classroom spaces. The tool kit will curate resources on assessment design, syllabus structure, classroom resources, recommendations for design and engagement with Learning Management Software (LMS), community building strategies, mental health resources and supports available at the University of Waterloo, and supporting educational research to support the translation of research on TIC and FP into the classroom.  

References

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Doughty, K. (2018). Increasing Trauma Informed Awareness in Higher Education. In ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 

Frey, N., Fisher, D., & Smith, D. (2020). Trauma-Informed Design in the Classroom. Educational Leadership, 78(2). 

Garcia, C. M., Lechner, K. E., Frerich, E. A., Lust, K. A., & Eisenberg, M. E. (2012). “Preventing sexual violence instead of just responding to it”: Students’ Perceptions of Sexual Violence Resources on Campus. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 8(2), 61–71. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-3938.2011.01130.x 

Gogarty, P. (2021). Childhood Sexual Assault in an Institutional Setting: Trauma-Informed Teaching and the Appropriate Use of “Self.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 37(1), 137–139. 

Gorski, P. (2020). How Trauma-Informed Are We, Really? Educational Leadership, 78(2), 14–19. 

Jennings, P. A. (2018). The Trauma-Sensitive Classroom: Building Resilience with Compassionate Teaching. W. W. Norton & Company. 

Jennings, P. A. (2019). Teaching in a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom: What Educators Can Do to Support Students. American Educator, 43(2), 12-. 

Nicholas, J., Penny Light, T., & Bondy, R. (2015). Feminist pedagogy in higher education: Critical theory and practice. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 

Phillips, S., & Melim, D. (2020). Belonging: A Relationship-Based Approach for Trauma-Informed Education. Rowman & Littlefield. 

Sanders, J. E. (2021). Teaching Note-Trauma-Informed Teaching in Social Work Education. Journal of Social Work Education, 57(1), 197–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2019.1661923