Embracing Disruption: A Framework for Trauma-informed Reflective Pedagogy

Abstract

This article presents a trauma-informed integrative reflection framework to make a case for prioritizing reflection during learning disruptions, especially in community-engaged learning environments. I begin by describing a community-based service-learning course “TESOL: Theory & Practice” which includes a community-engaged learning partnership between a university English department and the Adult Basic Education division at a local community college. Then, I articulate two aspects of the TESOL course developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: first, a framework for integrative reflection that supports adaptation and student learning throughout the semester, and second, the structures of trauma-informed reflective practice that I integrated throughout the course design. Finally, I highlight three takeaways of embracing disruption: adapting partnerships, disrupting routines, and keeping reflection at the center. Together, these themes point not only to the need for trauma-informed reflective pedagogy, but also the need to keep complicating how we live out this approach to teaching. 

Introduction

On March 11, 2020, the same day that the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, Elon University (Elon) leaders announced that after spring break, all classes would continue online for two weeks. Unsure of how Spring Semester would proceed, students left their belongings in their residence halls and off-campus apartments, seeking shelter where they felt most safe (often at their permanent residence out of state). As weeks passed, it became clear that on-campus instruction would not be resuming. In contrast, Alamance Community College (ACC), the local community college and community partner for the service-learning class I was teaching, remained open for the duration of the pandemic though they restricted access to their buildings to follow the North Carolina governor’s mandates. For students in my “Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL): Theory & Practice” course who were working in ACC’s ESOL classrooms, these contrasting pandemic responses did not go unnoticed.

Community-engaged learning courses are one place where the differing impact of the COVID-19 on the community, as well as corresponding individual repercussions, is especially noticeable. When my TESOL class moved online, my students were suddenly hundreds of miles away from their community-engaged learning partners, leaving without the chance to say goodbye to students and teachers. At the community college, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classrooms lost the support of these pre-service teachers as they, too, were thrust into uncertainty. As a faculty member, I needed to promptly adapt the course content so that students could still meet their learning goals and work with our long-term community partner to modify our community-engaged projects as ACC leaders grappled with their own challenges. In that first disrupted semester, Spring 2020, I responded to these concerns in real-time, only planning for two weeks at a time. As I turned to planning for the Fall 2020 Semester, I knew that I would still have to respond to real-time challenges as the pandemic raged; however, I also had the space to anticipate and plan for flexible responsive teaching. 

What I share in this article is not just a story of how a community partnership and accompanying TESOL course have evolved throughout the pandemic, but also the key role trauma-informed reflection has played throughout this process. Reflection is often considered the hyphen in service-learning (Eyler and Giles 1999); therefore, I have been using reflective writing and discussion as long as I have been teaching this community-engaged course to support students’ integration of new knowledge and experiences. What became especially clear during COVID-19-related disruptions, though, is that reflection can play an important role in working through trauma (Crosby, Howell, and Thomas 2018) both in students’ own lives and in their communities. Moreover, prior research has shown that reflection can enable students to more deeply engage with the social issues present in community-engaged learning experiences (House 2013). Reflective pedagogy, thus, has taken on new significance during the pandemic as it creates spaces for students to engage with both the challenges and opportunities of community-engaged learning during an unprecedented time. 

This article presents a trauma-informed integrative reflection framework to make a case for prioritizing reflection during learning disruptions, especially in community-engaged learning environments. This trauma-informed reflection draws upon research on trauma-informed teaching and reflective pedagogy, showing how the act of reflection can create trauma-informed classroom environments. Trauma-informed teaching recognizes that in times of trauma, students—from preschoolers to adult learners—need a sense of safety, connectedness, and hope (Teaching Tolerance Staff 2020). Integrative reflection provides students with opportunities to unpack prior learning experiences, connect learning across contexts, make meaning of those experiences, and examine the implications of their experiences for future learning (see Bowen 2007; Felten and Clayton 2011; Kiser 1998; Yancey 1998 for more discussion of the integrative aspects of reflection). During times of personal or community trauma, reflection can help individuals work through their experiences. Together, the principles of trauma-informed teaching and integrative reflection have served as a guide for both course design and reflective practice in my community-engaged TESOL course during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to trauma-informed classroom practices, I have used these concepts to guide my interactions with community partners and students to create space for care and responsivity. 

In the article that follows, I describe the community-based service-learning course “TESOL: Theory & Practice” which includes a community-engaged learning partnership between the English department at Elon and the Adult Basic Education division at ACC. Although the TESOL course curriculum is focused on English language pedagogy, writing and reflection are central activities in the course. I begin by articulating the need for trauma-informed teaching both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, I briefly describe the partnership between the English department at Elon University and the Adult Basic Education division of ACC before turning to two aspects of the TESOL course that I developed in response to the pandemic: first, a framework for integrative reflection that supports adaptation and student learning throughout the semester, and second, the structures of trauma-informed reflective practice that I integrated throughout the course design. Through this case study of my TESOL course, I highlight three takeaways of what it means to embrace disruption: adapting partnerships, disrupting routines, and keeping reflection at the center. Together, these themes point not only to the need for trauma-informed reflective pedagogy, but also the need to keep complicating how we truly live out this approach to teaching.

Recognizing the Need for Trauma-Informed Reflection

The impact of COVID-19 on communities throughout the United States has been widespread: individuals and communities have been grappling with health challenges related to the disease itself and stress on the healthcare system, as well as the economic effects of stay-at-home orders and business and school closures. Although the impact of COVID-19 has been unequal across communities, everyone has been affected. Our communities share in both individual and collective traumas related to physical and mental health, economic security, and the loss of shared cultural touchstones such as graduations, weddings, and funerals. The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) defines trauma as “an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being” (SAMHSA as cited in Imad 2020). Of the many overlapping traumas brought about because of COVID-19, some have been experienced while some of the trauma has been anticipatory, meaning that individuals indirectly exposed to threats (often through media reports and discussions) may experience psychological distress that negatively impact their functioning and well-being (Hopwood, Schutte, and Loi 2019). Along with the multiple individual and community traumas of the past year, we are all coping with grief: mourning friends and family members who have succumbed to COVID-19, mourning lost jobs and opportunities, and mourning celebrations and milestones that have been cancelled or postponed. Much like trauma, this grief can be realized or anticipatory (Berinato 2020), and affects our relationships with others. These traumatic experiences and the accompanying grief can be distressing for teachers and students alike (Miller and Flint-Stipp 2019).

With the many challenges facing students, teachers, and their communities due to COVID-19, many educators have turned to trauma-informed practices to support students’ on-going learning. Trauma-informed teaching is not new; researchers have long understood that traumatic experiences—from domestic abuse to natural disasters, from bullying to systemic racism—affect an individuals’ ability to learn (Hobbs, Paulsen, and Thomas 2019; Venet 2021). Significantly, this pedagogical approach does not just benefit those directly affected by trauma but all students benefit personally and academically from trauma-informed teaching (Hobbs, Paulsen, and Thomas 2019). Trauma-informed teaching goes beyond the classroom: it is also important for school leaders to create environments where teachers can implement trauma-informed practices (Rosenthal and Hromnik 2020; Venet 2021). This underscores the value of using trauma-informed teaching practices in community-engaged learning environments.

As trauma-informed teaching goes beyond a single classroom, it is also an ongoing orientation towards teaching. Research on trauma-informed teaching emphasizes that this approach to teaching is not a one-time intervention but a “process, and a holistic way of working that involves understanding and attending to the specific needs of individuals” (Hobbs, Paulsen, and Thomas 2019). Venet (2021) makes this connection between systems and individuals clear by articulating six principles that form equity-centered trauma-informed education: (1) it is antiracist and against all forms of oppression, (2) it is asset based and addresses the conditions, systems, and structures that cause harm, (3) it is a full ecosystem, not a list of strategies, (4) it centers our shared humanity, (5) it is a universal approach that is implemented proactively, and (6) it aims to create a trauma-free world through social-justice strategies (13-14). Venet’s principles not only underscore the importance of equity when responding to trauma in the classroom but also provide specific areas where teachers can take action in making their classrooms more inclusive equitable spaces while also taking action to change the inequitable systems that surround us. 

Recognizing the importance of trauma-informed teaching, neuroscientist Mays Imad (2020) extends SAMHSA’s principles of trauma-informed practice to the classroom setting with seven key recommendations: 

  1. Work to ensure students’ emotional, cognitive, physical, and interpersonal safety.
  2. Foster trustworthiness and transparency through connection among students.
  3. Intentionally facilitate peer support and mutual self-help in your courses.
  4. Promote collaboration and mutuality by sharing power and decision making with your students.
  5. Empower voice and choice by identifying and helping build on student strengths.
  6. Pay attention to cultural, historical and gender issues.[1]These principles emerge from SAMHSA’s principles of trauma-informed practice. As a White woman acutely aware of the importance of naming the impacts of racism and other intersectional injustices, I … Continue reading
  7. Impart to your students the importance of having a sense of purpose (Imad 2020, emphasis added).

Together, these recommendations give teachers the tools to create an environment where students feel safe, connected, and hopeful about their learning together and about the future. In the next section of this article, I apply these recommendations to my community-engaged TESOL class to show what these recommendations look like in practice. 

Notably, research on trauma-informed teaching indicates that it doesn’t take much classroom time to meaningfully address student needs during times of trauma: simply acknowledging events, holding a moment of silence or giving students time to express their feelings, may be enough (Huston and DiPietro 2007). Because my students are not only connected in our classroom but also with our community partner, these trauma-informed practices have been incorporated into communications with the community partner both in planning for community-engaged learning during COVID-19 and during ongoing meetings as we respond to new challenges.

As I turn to my own classroom and the accompanying community-engaged learning partnership to implement these trauma-informed teaching suggestions, I have identified three questions that guide my pedagogical choices and reflective practice: 

  • What does trauma-informed teaching look like in practice?
  • How might trauma-informed teaching practices inform community partnerships, especially the relationships between students, faculty, and stakeholders at the organization?
  • Finally, what does trauma-informed teaching tell us about privilege, power, and labor across academic-community partnerships?

In what follows, I attempt to provide some answers to these questions. 

Responding to Disruption: Community Partnership Before and During COVID-19

In the course description for “TESOL: Theory and Practice,” I describe our community-based service-learning[2]At our university, community partnerships are supported through the Kernodle Center for Civic Life. They use the terminology of service-learning, and the TESOL class is formally recognized as an … Continue reading experiences as the central text for our class (e.g. Boyle-Baise 2007). Taught at a medium-sized, private, undergraduate-focused, historically and predominantly White institution in the southeastern United States, the course originated from a need to provide TESOL education to pre-service English education majors (Moore 2013), but it has since evolved to also serve students with majors across the university interested in teaching English as a foreign language. Additionally, this course is a foundational component of a new undergraduate TESOL minor developed collaboratively with faculty in the English department and School of Education. This course provides an introduction to second language acquisition (SLA) and the theory and practice of TESOL. Classroom time is spent moving between the practical (basics on tutoring, teaching language skills, techniques for working with adult learners, etc.) and the theoretical (theories of SLA, the evolution of TESOL methodologies, etc.). Meanwhile, the entire course is infused with a critical awareness of the role of race and empire in TESOL (Motha 2014). I have been teaching this course, first as an “Introduction to TESOL” course and now as a 300-level “TESOL: Theory and Practice,” for five years; enrollment in the course averages about fifteen students, and class time is usually spent on seminar-style discussions. In Spring 2020, we had eight students, and in Fall 2020, we had twenty-one students enrolled in the course.

Community-engaged learning and reflection are embedded throughout the TESOL course curriculum. Students must complete at least 40 hours of service with our community partner, the ESOL program within the Adult Basic Education (ABE) division of our local community college. In the typical semester, students spend approximately 20 hours in direct service, working with English language learners in ESOL, high-school equivalency/GED, computer literacy, or citizenship classes, supporting the classroom teacher by working with students one-on-one, tutoring in small groups, teaching mini-lessons, or leading activities for the entire class. Another 20 hours of indirect service are used to develop teaching materials in collaboration with the teacher of the course they are serving. TESOL students write about their experiences working with the community partner through integrative reflection journals, which include individual written reflections, comments from their peers, and reflective class discussions. Additionally, students’ final projects consist of three parts directly related to their community partnership: a needs assessment, a written project proposal, and final project materials accompanied by a “teacher’s memo,” a written rationale for the project drawn from course readings, lectures, discussions, and conversations with the community partner. 

With the first COVID-19 disruptions in March 2020, my goal was to preserve student learning and maintain our long-term commitment to ACC. In practice, I adjusted several course assignments, including the content of our written reflections, and I kept an open channel of communication with our community partner. Due to their focus on supporting their own students, our ACC partners asked to suspend the partnership for the rest of the term. Although we paused the direct service component of our learning, I worked to ensure that our site-related learning did not end. I have re-written reflection journal prompts to revisit the in-person experiences students did have, invited students to do more site-related research, and, when living away from Alamance County during shelter-in-place, I invited students to research ESOL programs and other community organizations supporting immigrant and refugee communities in the place they were living. These adaptations honored both the community partner’s needs to focus on their own day-to-day operations as well as the learning goals of our TESOL course.

Once we recognized that the pandemic disruptions would last longer than a few months, I worked with my colleagues at ACC to brainstorm creative ways to maintain our partnership even though the traditional structure of pairing Elon students with ACC teachers to work in-person in ACC classes might not be possible for some time to come. In Fall 2020, my TESOL course was taught online; ACC ESOL classes were continuing via in-person, online, and hybrid formats. In this setting, we created a number of flexible placements that would support both ACC’s needs and Elon student learning. These included pairing students with teachers utilizing new technologies, placing students in the main ABE office to support them with marketing materials for their course offerings, and pairing experienced pre-service teachers with the ESOL program coordinator to develop teacher development workshop materials. Finally, the program directors and I had a long-discussed dream for a community citizenship celebration that would recognize new American citizens in our county. The projects ranged from partially in-person to fully digital, as we knew that Elon students were also coming into the Fall Semester with a wide range of goals for their service-learning in the course as well as a range of personal safety needs in the COVID-19 environment. During the pandemic, our partnership has evolved from connecting individual students with specific teachers and classes to a broader partnership between the leadership of the ABE program and the TESOL course, focusing on showing students all aspects of administering an ESOL program, including marketing, teacher training, and community outreach initiatives. Although we have had to navigate unexpected challenges with the community-engaged learning aspect of the course, these challenges have also provided opportunities to deeply discuss the purpose of community-engaged learning and the value of these institutional partnerships. Similarly, this reimagined partnership has provided students with a wider glimpse into how the ESOL program fits within the broader context of the Adult Basic Education division at the community college. 

Practicing Trauma-Informed Reflection

Even in the face of COVID-related disruptions, our community learning partnership with ACC’s ESOL program remains central to the curriculum, with reflective pedagogy providing space to cope with and learn from the continually-evolving terms of that partnership during the pandemic. Beyond the community partnership, I knew that I needed to make additional changes to the content of the TESOL course to foreground trauma-informed teaching. To do this, I began with our reflection assignments as they provide the link between our TESOL classroom and the community partnership, and it is an ongoing assignment throughout the semester. Revising our reflection prompts to include trauma-informed practices served as a springboard for subsequent curricular revisions.

A Framework for Trauma Informed Reflection

Underlying this curricular re-design is a framework I have developed and been using for many years to teach integrative reflection in TESOL and other contexts (figure 1, below). While teaching during the pandemic, I identified gaps in the past iterations and updated the framework to include trauma-informed practices. Whether carefully-planning reflection activities before the semester begins or adapting to challenges during the semester, this framework enables me to prompt holistic integrative reflection in reflection journals and class discussions.

Tier 1: Ways of Thinking Reflection: Reflect on your past experiences. 

  • Asks: What?

Connection: Connect your experiences in the classroom with out-of-class learning and prior knowledge. 

  • Asks: With what?

Analysis: Make meaning of your experiences. 

  • Asks: So what?

Application: Apply your experiences to the future. 

  • Asks: Now what?
Tier 2: Anchoring Questions Identify Concrete Examples: Ask students about the people they work with, the locations where they work, material conditions at their site, and the objects they work with. Language like “tell a story” can invite these examples.

Identify Relevant Knowledge: Ask about students’ relevant skills or knowledge prior to or during an experience, or invite them to research knowledge they need to know to continue their learning. 

Examine Dissonance: Ask students to notice and wrestle with dissonance in expectations, between theory & practice, and between experiences at different times during their service.

Articulate Strategies: Ask students about challenges they have faced and how they have overcome them or provide a potential solution they could use in the future. 

Set and Revise Goals: Ask students about initial goals and expectations for their experience, and in general invite students to revise goals at significant points in the experience. At the end of the course, encourage students to incorporate what they have learned into their future goals.

Invoke Time: Ask about the past, prompt students to stay in the present, or encourage them to muse about the future.

Unpack Emotions: Ask students how they feel at critical moments and ask them why they might feel that way.

Recognize Power: Within the context of course readings, discussions, and their experiences in the community, invite students to notice structures of power present at their site or contradictions between theory and practice.

Challenge Norms: Invite students to identify opportunities to challenge norms within learning theories, classroom practices, or other aspects of their learning experience. 

Figure 1: Trauma-Informed Framework for Integrative Reflection Prompts 

As an English educator committed to the scholarship of teaching and learning, I’ve spent several years developing this framework based on my work on reflection and metacognition, integrative learning, antiracist pedagogy, and now trauma-informed teaching. My hope is that this framework can be useful to all educators using reflection in community-engaged settings. 

The first tier of the reflection framework, Ways of Thinking, describes the intellectual work we are asking students to do while reflecting. The act of reflection centers students within their experiences, either at present or in the past (Yancey 1998). Connection explicitly asks students to make connections between classroom learning and their community-based experiences (Felten and Clayton 2011). Analysis asks students to make meaning of these experiences, especially focusing on critically analyzing the impact of their service and exploring dissonance across their experiences and learning (Kiser 2014). Finally, application invites students to take what they’ve learned in class and through their community-based experiences to their future; this could include short-term actions such as changing the way they interact with community members,  developing ideas for their final class project, or long-term actions such as shifting the direction of their major or their orientation towards future service (Cho and Gulley 2017; Schneider 2019). Each of these thinking practices connects with a straightforward question—What? With what? So what? Now what?—expanding upon the already familiar model (Bowen 2007).

The second tier, Anchoring Questions, provides suggestions for instructors to create integrative reflection prompts that invite students to do the intellectual work of Tier 1 from different angles. When reflection prompts are abstract, students write abstract responses (House 2013). Similarly, carefully-planned reflection prompts integrated throughout the course can support students’ metacognitive awareness (Negretti 2012) and critical thinking (Kuhn and Dean 2004; House 2013). The anchoring questions in Tier 2 provide different lenses for students to consider their classroom learning and their community-based experiences. Several of the anchoring questions—identifying concrete examples, identifying relevant knowledge, and examining dissonance—are drawn from Kiser’s Integrative Processing Model (IPM), a six-step cyclic process for learning from field experiences (Kiser 1998). Other anchoring questions have been drawn from research on metacognition and reflection in educational psychology and writing studies, as well as research in the fields of service-learning, critical race theory, and of course, TESOL. 

Research on metacognition and reflection, both in educational psychology and writing studies, has underscored the value of articulating strategies (Hacker 1998; Schraw 1998) and setting and revising goals (Sitko 1998; Yancey 1998; Felten and Clayton 2011; Sanders-Reio et al. 2014). Jaratt, Mack, Sartour & Watson’s work on pedagogical memory (2009) reminds us that invoking time is an important component to integrative reflection: past experiences are remembered through present circumstances and connected with future goals. Additionally, unpacking emotions plays an important role in writing and reflection (Driscoll and Powell 2016; Musgrove 1998), and it is especially important to attend to students’ emotions resulting from stressful or traumatic experiences (Resilient Educator 2020). Moreover, reflection can play an important role in recognizing power, both in systems of education and social structures as well as everyday teaching practices (Motha 2014; O’Grady and Chappell 2000). Finally, feminist educators such as bell hooks (1994) invite us to use reflection to challenge norms and resist systems of oppression.

In practice, I utilize this framework to prompt reflection in both written and discussion formats. Students find some of the questions easy and others quite challenging; asking similar questions in different ways at regular intervals during the service-learning experience allows students to move from a more comfortable reflective space towards a personally challenging and critical space. Moreover, during times of academic instability—like the COVID-19 pandemic—this integrative reflection framework has enabled me to quickly adapt our reflections to respond to current circumstances. The framework supports trauma-informed teaching both through the structures of reflective practice described in the previous section as well as by encouraging students to share their voice and experiences with their professor and peers, and empowering them to take charge of their own learning narratives. Most importantly, this framework, and the accompanying learning activities, creates a culture of reflection embedded throughout the course. 

Trauma-Informed Reflection in Writing

In order to demonstrate how I use this trauma-informed framework for integrative reflection in my teaching, I share excerpts from written reflection prompts and examples from student responses in Figure 2, below[3]Due to pandemic-related research constraints, these responses were not collected and analyzed in a formal research study. However, I obtained consent from four students to include excerpts of their … Continue reading. The student writing was collected from students studying English, education, and professional writing and rhetoric. They also represent multiple years of study from sophomore to senior year. All samples are from women, as were the majority of students in the class (twenty of the twenty-one students enrolled in Fall 2020). The student writing excerpts are intended to show a range of student responses to the reflection prompts. 

As samples of the semester’s weekly reflection prompts, these excerpts bring together various elements from the integrative reflection framework to invite students to recall their prior learning experiences, community-learning experiences, and TESOL coursework through a trauma-informed, person-first perspective. These journals are spaces for students to reflect on their learning, connect that learning across their learning experiences, analyze what those experiences mean for them as individuals and for their communities, and apply this newfound knowledge to their future learning and understanding of the world. With a trauma-informed teaching orientation to reflection, these journals also give students a voice in describing their experiences, create community by sharing their stories, and, ultimately, provide space for hopeful reflection. 

As the student reflective writing demonstrates, students used the space to describe their experiences with community-engaged learning, register concerns and frustrations (which I could then respond to individually or with the class), and make connections across prior, present, and future goals and experiences. For example, Reflection 1 asks students to “look back on your motivations for enrolling in English 306: TESOL Theory & Practice,” and Student 2 not only names their future goals (Masters degree or teaching online or abroad), but also articulates their learning goals, “how to keep my classroom inclusive and the different methods of teaching languages, as well as what works and what doesn’t. I want to learn how to empower my students and help them achieve their goals in learning English.” In contrast, in responding to the same journal prompt, Student 3 raises her own questions about academic rigor and how it affects English language learners, writing, “teaching English brings on many challenges beyond the sole academic rigor of it that I had initially only considered. I also believe there is a social justice aspect that accompanies learning about working with ELLs, and I would love to pursue that as well in any way I can.” By creating specific clearly-scaffolded reflection prompts geared toward students’ developmental and academic progress through the semester, students are given opportunities to deeply engage with their service learning. Figure 2 presents additional reflection prompts and examples of student writing at different points in the semester.

Reflection Anchoring Question Prompt Excerpt
Reflection 1 Identify Relevant Knowledge;

Set and Revise Goals

“I ask you, first, to look back on your motivations for enrolling in English 306: TESOL Theory & Practice. Why are you taking this class? What do you hope to learn from it?

Second, what prior knowledge do you bring to this class: maybe you have taken education courses previously, or courses on language. Have you ever been a language learner yourself? How did that go? Have you ever tutored or taught others a skill before?”

Student Responses “I’d like to either continue my education by pursuing a Masters in Education while working for one of the online TESOL programs, or move abroad and begin teaching English in a different country. […] I hope to learn how to keep my classroom inclusive and the different methods of teaching languages, as well as what works and what doesn’t. I want to learn how to empower my students and help them achieve their goals in learning English.” (S2)

“I believe that teaching English brings on many challenges beyond the sole academic rigor of it that I had initially only considered. I also believe there is a social justice aspect that accompanies learning about working with ELLs, and I would love to pursue that as well in any way I can, most obviously, in the classroom as a teacher.” (S3)

Reflection 3 Identify Relevant Knowledge;

Recognize Power

“We have been talking about the relationship between English language teaching, power, and place. This week, I’d like you to do a bit of research about your site so that you can trace these relationships in our community. […] Write a bit about the primary population served by your site. Consider both the broad population of ACC and the ABE division, as well as the ESOL program specifically.”

“Now, go beyond your specific site to do a bit of research about how ACC, or other local sites, is serving the population you identified above during this pandemic. […] Finally, based on what you don’t see, what gaps in services might remain?”

Student Responses “Although there are multiple places that are providing drive through food pickup or pantries, there is still a barrier of transportation to these locations. […] I also noticed that there was little to no information surrounding internet access issues at ACC. This can be a huge inequity for students taking classes online who do not have reliable internet access at home.” (S1)

“ACC is providing a lot of resources on their Facebook page that show students why and how they can not just survive but also help during a pandemic. One example of this is the article they posted, ‘Community Colleges Can Be Engines of Economic Recovery.’ This shows that ACC is pushing its faculty and students to stay productive during this time of uncertainty.” (S4)

Reflection 7 Examine Dissonance;

Unpack Emotions

“Select an experience at your service-learning site or elsewhere (in the past or present) that raised questions about our classroom learning or course readings. Provide a written account of that experience. Reflect, record, and assess your own reactions to the experience.”
Student Responses “I was the only one freaking out [about a new student with limited English proficiency], and all of the other 1st grade girls in my group welcomed her in and didn’t seem to be bothered by the language barrier at all. They showed her things with their hands and tried to help her learn and know what was going on as much as possible.” (S1)

“I remember during one of the Spanish songs she was teaching, a student yelled out “I know this song because we use these words at home!” I can only imagine how exciting it was to see his language in a classroom when he might not get that type of exposure or inclusion elsewhere. […] I am curious to see how her administrators would […] react when they learn that she does that type of thing. I think it might be more “acceptable” since it is a music class and it is typical for students to learn songs in a different language.” (S2)

Reflection 10 Articulate Strategies;

Invoke Time

“To look back at the semester, it has been filled with many (unexpected) new experiences. Looking back at past journals and reflecting on your experiences, what have been some of the greatest challenges you have faced during the semester, first, as a human being, and second, as a learner/future teacher? After describing challenges, clearly describe one or two successes from the semester.”
Student Responses “[…]after experiencing this struggle and experiencing the grace that was shown in this class, I am able to recognize the importance of reflective teaching in the classroom. The reality is that the fear and anxiety I faced this semester are emotional hardships that some students in my class may face every single day, and to not allow any time for acknowledging and reflecting on this can be so detrimental to the student as not only a learner but a human being.” (S3)

“learning about the psychological aspects of TESOL really informed my role in the classroom. I was able to explain the reasons behind many of their challenges, and it really seemed to encourage the students knowing that their struggles were normal in language learning.” (S4)

Figure 2: Excerpts from Prompted Reflections & Student Writing

By incorporating trauma-informed pedagogy in these prompts and in the broader classroom environment, I have been able to create a space where students feel safe to express their feelings, they feel connected to their peers and to their site, and they articulate their hopes for both their individual futures and that of their community. These feelings of connection and hope were often generated beyond the written reflections; written comments and other classroom structures brought reflective practice into the community, as I describe now and in the next sections. 

In addition to writing ten individual reflective journal entries throughout the semester, students regularly comment on each other’s writing through their reflection & wellness groups and supergroups. I prompt these peer comments with four possible lenses for providing comments that are both thoughtful and generative for their classmates:

  1. Find commonality in the experience: share something about your service-learning experience that is similar to your classmates’ experience.
  2. Provide support to your classmate: share something that worked in your situation that could work in theirs, ask a question, or otherwise engage with a challenge they describe.
  3. Ask a probing question: a great way to learn more about a statement your peer makes or an experience they describe is to ask a question to get more information about their statement. Sometimes it can be for clarification, while other times it might be to consider another perspective.
  4. Recognize the learning: one of the best ways to learn from each other’s experiences is to point out the really smart things they say, and describe why it’s so smart. So, you can respond to a thoughtful comment or great teaching solution by naming what they did and why you think it is such a good idea.

In following the trauma-informed teaching principles of safety, community, and hope, the prompted journal comments provide students with a framework to share commonality and mutual support, ask questions, and celebrate each other throughout the term. At best, these reflection journals and the peer comments provide opportunities for students to problem-solve together. One potential risk is that students may skirt around conflict; however, I have found that students are very willing to share and commiserate in the challenges of service-learning. 

Trauma-Informed Reflection in Discussion

The integrative reflection framework not only provides inspiration for written reflection prompts and peer comments, but it also provides content for classroom discussions about our service-learning experiences. When leading these discussions, or inviting students to lead the discussions, I invite students to use discussion techniques that foster safe, empathetic communication and strengthen our classroom community. Each time I prepare an in-class discussion activity, I review the integrative reflection framework to develop responsive prompts that encourage students’ ongoing growth as reflective teachers. I then use these prompts to engage students in structured discussions, using some of the following activities:

  • Prompted Discussion: review the writing journal prompt and students’ written responses, creating new thought-provoking questions, especially those that invite peer empathy and support. The think-pair-share model can be an effective way to structure this discussion, giving students a bit of time to individually look back at their prior writing and respond to the new questions, then discuss their responses in a pair or small group, and finally report the key themes of their discussion back to the full class. 
  • “High, Low, Buffalo” or “Rose, Thorn, Bud”: each of these mnemonic reflection tasks invites students to share their reflections in three parts: both activities ask for positive aspects of their service-learning experiences (“high” or “rose”) and challenges (“low” or “thorn”) but differ in the third component. “Buffalo” invites students to share something unexpected or silly about their experience while “bud” invites students to share a new idea or something they’re looking forward to learning more about. 
  • Jigsaw: students are put into groups where they are given a specific question to become “experts” on; then they are sorted into groups that consist of one person from each prior group who can then share the responses from the first group and teach their new group members.

Each of the reflection activities described in this section utilize both trauma-informed teaching principles and the integrative reflection framework to generate reflection prompts that work for written reflections, peer comments, and in-class discussions. Moreover, the integrative reflection framework provides both a process of reflection (reflect-connect-analyze-apply) that is easy to remember and brings students’ reflective practice through an iterative process throughout the semester, as well as multiple lenses that invite students to reflect from multiple perspectives. This is especially important during times of disruption, but this integrative reflection framework can inspire focused reflection prompts in a wide variety of learning contexts.

Designing Structures for Trauma-Informed Reflection

In designing the community-engaged TESOL course to be responsive to student and community needs, I created curricular spaces to enable trauma-informed reflection, focusing on Teaching Tolerance’s (2020) three principles of trauma-informed teaching—safety, community, and hope—as well as Imad’s (2020) seven recommendations for trauma-informed classrooms and Venet’s (2021) six principles for equity-centered trauma-informed education. In this section, I will specifically describe three classroom structures that facilitate trauma-informed teaching: reflection & wellness groups, weekly safety check-ins, and outcomes-based contract grading (see Figure 3 for details about the design and function of these structures). 

Structure Design Function
Reflection & Wellness (R&W) Groups 
  • Groups of 3-4 students, connected out of class via GroupMe
  • Supergroups consist of 2 paired R&W groups
  • Creates small communities for classroom & interpersonal support
  • Facilitates weekly reflection journal comments
  • Provides regular structure for some in-class discussion groups
Weekly Safety Check-ins
  • Utilize polling software (e.g. Zoom polls) 
  • Students rank their physical health & well-being and emotional health & well-being on a scale of 1-5 (low-high)
  • Allows for anonymous check-ins on physical and mental safety and well-being
  • Creates opportunities for talking about COVID-safety, mental health, and community health
  • Provides resources to support students’ physical and emotional health & well-being
Outcomes-Based Contract Grading
  • Introduce at the beginning of term with Grading Chart 
  • Revisit during significant course changes and/or at midterm. 
  • Prioritizes students’ participation, labor, and effort in the course.
  • Adapts to changing partnership and student needs

Figure 3. Trauma-Informed Curricular Structures

Reflection & Wellness Groups

The Reflection & Wellness (R&W) groups perform several functions in the course, all of which support students’ “emotional, cognitive, physical, and interpersonal safety” as well as “intentionally facilitat[ing] peer support and mutual self-help” (Imad 2020). First, these groups of 3-4 students are connected via GroupMe where they can ask questions about assignments, follow-up if a member misses class, and build an informal community. When students write their weekly reflection journal, the student’s R&W group peers comment on their journal entries each week. In addition, each R&W group is paired with another R&W group to form a “SuperGroup,” building additional connections with classmates and giving broader journal feedback biweekly. Finally, students participate in some class activities in their R&W group, including in-class activities, collaborative reading annotations[4]Using Google Drive, I upload a copy of course readings as a .pdf into a folder for each group. Students access their group’s copy of the text and leave comments on the document, either creating … Continue reading, and in-class reflection discussions. These group activities “promote collaboration and mutuality by sharing power and decision making with your students,” and “empower voice and choice by identifying and helping build on student strengths” (Imad 2020). These groups seemed especially important during the Fall Semester when our course was held remotely; therefore, we did not share physical space with each other. Because relationships are a key factor in addressing trauma, trauma-informed educators need to facilitate connections to peers and to resources (Venet 2021). Intentionally creating small communities within our larger class community helped break down digital barriers. These R&W groups have proven so successful that I plan to use this structure when teaching this class in the future. 

Safety Check-Ins

In addition to the Reflection & Wellness groups, each week I conducted weekly safety checks with students through an anonymous survey, asking them to rate both their sense of physical safety and well-being and emotional safety and well-being on a scale from 1-5. Because my course was remote, I used a Zoom poll, but other classroom polling tools could be used. I immediately share results with the students, noting how most students are feeling, as well as outliers at either end of the scale. Sharing this data shows students that they are not alone in their sense of safety and well-being during a difficult time. At this point, I always open the floor for students to share their worries, concerns, and self-care activities, reinforcing peer support and mutual self-help. Research indicates that during collective tragedies, students appreciate when faculty meaningfully address these events in class (Huston and DiPietro 2007). Finally, I provide resources to students related to physical and emotional health and well-being, including campus mental health resources, news, and research articles on coping with COVID-19 and related traumas, and student-generated ideas for mutual support and self-care. Research by Janice Carello and Lisa D. Butler (2015), social work educators and trauma-informed teaching researchers, indicates that attention to self-care and providing campus resources is highly appreciated by students when experiencing trauma or learning about trauma-related subjects.

Finally, following the safety check-ins, I share updates from our community partner, debrief challenging situations, and collect recommendations to share back to our partners. For example, five weeks into the Fall 2020 semester, the rising number of COVID cases at Elon necessitated a “social hiatus” where students were asked to limit their movement and not travel off campus. Together with the program administrators at ACC, we determined that we would suspend in-person visits to their campus. Students were worried about the cases on our campus and worried about how this change to the partnership would affect them. In this model of safety, community, and hope, I reassured the students that, together, we were making safe choices, prioritizing the community, and working to find solutions that worked for everyone. Because I start our classes with the same routine of safety polls, interpersonal check-ins, and community-partner updates, students can rely on having a space to voice their concerns and spend time in community. Throughout the semester, students have consistently shared how meaningful these moments are to them through personal emails and comments on Twitter.[5]Examples of unsolicited feedback includes this excerpt from a student email: “I just wanted to say I notice how you genuinely care about our wellness, and our concerns. I thank you so much, and … Continue reading 

Outcomes-Based Contract Grading

The final trauma-informed classroom structure that enables flexibility throughout the semester is contract grading (e.g. Danielewicz and Elbow 2009; Inman and Powell 2018; Inoue 2019). Over the past several years I have been utilizing contract grading structures in my writing and language courses, and TESOL has been no exception. Evolving from unilateral contract grading (Danielewicz and Elbow 2009) to labor-based contract grading (Inoue 2019), I developed an outcomes-based contract grading system that focuses on student participation and project-based learning throughout the semester. A central component of this grading system is a chart (see figure 2, below) that articulates passing work in the class (a “C” in traditional grading) and failing work in the class (usually a “D” or “F”). Beyond that, I identify coursework that leads to an excellent grade in the course (“A”), and fill in the middle space for a “B” grade. 

English 306: TESOL Theory & Practice Grading Chart – Fall 2020
A Grade B Grade (Pass) C Grade (Pass) D and Below (Fail)
Required Activities:

  • Complete at least 20 service-learning hours at your community site, or the equivalent
  • Submit notes for your day as note-taker
  • Complete all required lectures, readings, and Moodle activities and actively participate in Zoom discussions
Required Activities:

  • Complete at least 20 service-learning hours at your community site, or the equivalent
  • Submit notes for your day as note-taker
  • Complete most required lectures, readings, and Moodle activities and actively participate in Zoom discussions
Required Activities:

  • Complete at least 20 service-learning hours at your community site, or the equivalent
  • Submit notes for your day as note-taker
  • Complete most required lectures, readings, and Moodle activities and actively participate in Zoom discussions
  • Any of the following can drop your grade to a D or below without notice:
    • Fewer than 20 service-learning hours (or the equivalent) at your community site.
    • Failure to submit notes on your day as note-taker
    • Consistently incomplete viewing of lectures, readings, and Moodle activities and insufficient participation in Zoom discussions
  • Missing or incomplete assignments, including:
    • Language Learning Autobiography
    • Fewer than 6 SL Reflection Journal entries
    • Missing the Historical Methods Presentation
  • Missing any part of the Final SL Project, including:
    • Needs Assessment
    • Project Proposal
    • Materials Presentation
    • Final Project materials + Design Memo
Required Assignments:

  • Language Learning Autobiography (LLA)
  • Historical Methods Presentation
  • 10 SL Reflection Journals
  • Interview with a TESOL professional
  • Complete Teaching Commitment Statement
  • Lead one class discussion on readings or reflections
Required Assignments:

  • Language Learning Autobiography (LLA)
  • Historical Methods Presentation
  • 8 SL Reflection Journals
  • LLA Revisited
  • Complete Teaching Commitment Statement

 

Required Assignments:

  • Language Learning Autobiography
  • Historical Methods Presentation
  • 6 SL Reflection Journals
Final SL Project, including:

  • Needs Assessment
  • Project Proposal
  • Materials Presentation
  • Final Project materials + Design memo
Final SL Project, including:

  • Needs Assessment
  • Project Proposal
  • Materials Presentation
  • Final Project materials + Design memo
Final SL Project, including:

  • Needs Assessment
  • Project Proposal
  • Materials Presentation
  • Final Project materials + Design memo
A-, B+, B-, C+, and C- may be awarded if student work exceeds expectations or is lower than expectations (ex. One re-submit that is not resubmitted). Created by Dr. Jennifer Eidum, Elon University (jeidum@elon.edu @jennifer_eidum) Click here for printable download.

Figure 4: Outcomes-Based Grading Chart

Each of the main assignments in this chart aligns with course outcomes as well as prioritizes community partnership. Each assignment is graded as “complete” if the student meets the objectives of the assignment, or “incomplete” if components of the assignment are of low quality or missing. Students can re-submit an “incomplete” to be reassessed until it is “complete.” 

The outcomes-based grading structure has created space for me to adjust the assignments as needed to respond to unforeseen challenges, such as COVID-related closures, and the grading system of “complete/incomplete” has engendered students’ flexibility in light of personal challenges as they don’t need to worry about grades in the course; instead, the focus is on the completion of learning activities. Sarah DeBacher, when reflecting on her teaching experiences during Hurricane Katrina, similarly utilizes contract grading to promote safe spaces for students to write, reflect, and continue learning through traumatic situations (DeBacher and Harris-Moore 2016)[6]Contract grading systems can also support antiracist, translingual, and critical pedagogy approaches to teaching and learning by challenging traditional structures of assessment. See Inoue (2015; … Continue reading. Because I had already been using grading contracts for several years, I had already experienced a positive shift in the relationship between myself and my students, becoming less as an adjudicator of quality and success, and more of a coach, guiding students to meeting their goals. 

Having the structure of an outcomes-based grading contract already embedded into my courses has made responding to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic much easier, as the goal has always been to focus on students’ learning. Moreover, after incorporating the principles of trauma-informed teaching into my classroom, I have experienced how contract grading can support the goals of safety, community, and hope: students are safe to attend to their physical and emotional needs on their own timeline without worrying about major negative consequences, they take part in a community where everyone’s learning is supported without competition for certain grades, and they are supported in their hope of meeting their learning goals rather than fear of not doing well enough. Not all versions of grading contracts are trauma-informed; however, contract grading is an important practice that can support trauma-informed teaching and meet the broader assessment needs of students and the university. 

Embracing Disruption Through Reflective Practice

In this article, I have described the community-engaged learning partnership between a university English language teaching class and a community college ESOL program, and how it has evolved due to COVID-19 disruptions. As the professor teaching the TESOL course, I have shown how I use a trauma-informed framework for integrative reflection to center reflective responsive learning and to embrace the disruptions created by the pandemic. Moreover, I have shared how I have adapted our course curriculum to foreground trauma-informed teaching practices to support my own students and model caring community relationships. As it becomes clear that both the economic and cultural impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will persist for some time; I am also considering the many pedagogical lessons learned during this experience. Reflecting on my experience as a trauma-informed responsive teacher during this crisis, three key themes have emerged, described below.

Adapting Partnerships

Community-engaged learning partnerships bring together multiple stakeholders to collaborate on a common goal; these stakeholders include students, community partners (in our case, ABE program leadership, ESOL teachers, and ESOL students), and the faculty teaching the related academic course. Reflection and analysis can play an important role in understanding stakeholder needs throughout these community partnerships (Hea 2005). After experiencing an enormous, ongoing, disruption to our learning environment, adaptation has been essential. However, the responsibility for adaptation is not the same across stakeholders; the community partner is responsible for responding to the needs of their constituents within the community. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, my students have been concerned about meeting their learning goals, managing their schedule (especially with multiple courses, jobs, and student organizations all adapting differently), and, ultimately, being successful in the course. The academic course is the link between the students and the community, and so I have found that the faculty member and the course itself must be the thing to adapt most: when needed, I took on a larger liaison role between students and teachers; when needed, I changed the course assignments and assessment structures; and when needed, I dropped assignments entirely so that students could focus on the learning that matters most for meeting learning outcomes and maintaining our community partnership commitments. Put simply, this pandemic has underscored that the burden of adaptation falls on me, the professor, not on the community partner or students. Although I still need to support students in meeting their learning outcomes for the course, when a crisis arises, it is my responsibility to adapt the curriculum and respond to the community partner’s changing needs—even if that means significantly changing or suspending the partnership. Additionally, it is my responsibility to call students’ attention to the inequities between institutions, among students, and so on, rather than continue the partnership as if the situation is normal.

With these many responsibilities, it is important to pause and recognize that faculty, too, experience trauma. As I work to maintain the community-engaged learning partnership, support students, adjust the course curriculum, and otherwise adapt, I also aim to set clear boundaries and expectations for myself. For example, I have a group of colleagues with whom I can comfortably brainstorm ideas and share my own fears and frustrations. I do not check email in the evenings or weekends (and if I must, I schedule any responses for regular business hours). When appropriate, I share my own experiences and vulnerabilities with my students and with the community partner—including my limits for taking on more. Because I am teaching future teachers, I view it as my responsibility to model healthy behavior, recognizing that this profession often asks for self-sacrifice. 

Disrupting Routines

The ongoing adaptations to the TESOL course and community partnership due to COVID-19 disruptions has created new opportunities for teaching and learning by de-routinizing course activities. Although I had already used many of the structures and activities described in this article prior to the pandemic, the shift to online learning challenged me to deeply revise our reflective writing assignments, re-envision our community partnership, and incorporate trauma-informed teaching practices throughout the course. 

Trauma-informed teaching has helped to guide my decision-making and communication when making significant changes to course assignments. First, when possible, I invite students’ feedback on potential changes through surveys, class discussions, and one-on-one feedback. In the language of trauma-informed teaching, this promotes collaboration and mutuality through partnership with students. Second, I clearly communicate the rationale for changes, tying them back to the needs of the community partner or students, and to the course goals. This fosters trustworthiness and transparency among students and with the community partner. Finally, I am not afraid to share my vulnerability with my students: I tell students when I’m having a hard time, confess when a change doesn’t work as expected, and when I’m unsure of what is coming up next. Trauma-informed teaching encourages teachers and other leaders to model resilient behaviors through vulnerability and meaningful connections (Crane et al. 2019)

Throughout both the Spring and Fall 2020 Semesters, I actively changed assignments as the learning situation has changed. The use of an outcomes-based grading contract and a complete/incomplete grading structure afforded me flexibility on how I assign and evaluate students’ assignments. The time I did not spend grading (due to our complete/incomplete assignment grades) created more time for adaptation. Within academia there are many systems that had been accepted as routine before COVID-19 (grades for one, synchronous classes as another) that came into question during pandemic disruptions. As teachers necessarily experiment with new ways of teaching and learning, I ask: how do we keep de-routinization as a core pedagogical investment? Recognizing that teachers are often required to teach more classes and/or students than they can comfortably handle, how can we incorporate more responsivity and adaptation into regular teaching behaviors? 

Keeping Reflection at the Center

Finally, the myriad of ongoing disruptions over the past two academic years has underscored the importance of centering reflection in community-engaged learning partnerships. Reflection is most effective when it is not only focused on individual experiences, but also situated in and engaged with the community (O’Grady and Chappell 2000). As Veronica House (2013) warns, reflection should not be “something that students do occasionally when instructed by their teacher but instead integral to everything they write and to the process of learning itself” (36). Therefore, it is important to build a culture of reflection throughout the course, starting with writing tasks and extending into class discussions, reading annotations, communications with the community partner, and so on. The trauma-informed integrative reflection framework described in this article shows us that there is both a process for deep reflection as well as multiple lenses by which an experience can be examined. Whether a community partnership is suspended, disrupted, or proceeds as planned, community-engaged learning sites can generate endless opportunities for reflection, connection, analysis, and, ultimately, action. 

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts have required shifts in thinking about community-engaged learning and classroom pedagogy. Responding to these challenges with trauma-informed pedagogy provides one possible pathway for creating more responsive and relational classroom spaces—ones that prioritize kindness and empathy along with learning. As we continue to move through this traumatic time and look to a world that comes “after COVID,” I ask: how do we take advantage of the disruptions to the status quo and create new partnerships and ways of being and learning that support our students and our communities? 

Despite the many ongoing challenges that have emerged with the COVID-19 pandemic, I have found that the corresponding changes to our classroom learning and community partnership has reinvigorated my teaching. Trauma-informed pedagogy recognizes that safety is a precondition to learning, and recognizing both individual and community needs for safety, community, and hope during this time of crisis has immeasurably changed my teaching, and this community-engaged learning partnership, for the better. 

References

Berinato, Scott. 2020. “That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief.” Harvard Business Review, March 23, 2020. https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief.

Bowen, Glenn A. 2007. Reflection Methods and Activities for Service Learning: A Student Manual and Workbook. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt.

Boyle-Baise, Marilynne. 2007. “Learning Service: Reading Service as Text.” Reflections 6 (1): 67–86.

Carello, Janice, and Lisa D Butler. 2015. “Practicing What We Teach: Trauma-Informed Educational Practice.” Journal of Teaching in Social Work 35 (3): 262–78.

Cho, Hyesun, and Jeremy Gulley. 2017. “A Catalyst for Change: Service-Learning for TESOL Graduate Students.” TESOL Journal 8 (3): 613–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tesj.289.

Crane, M. F., B. J. Searle, M. Kangas, and Y. Nwiran. 2019. “How Resilience Is Strengthened by Exposure to Stressors: The Systematic Self-Reflection Model of Resilience Strengthening.” Anxiety, Stress, & Coping 32 (1): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2018.1506640.

Crosby, Shantel D., Penny Howell, and Shelley Thomas. 2018. “Social Justice Education through Trauma-Informed Teaching.” Middle School Journal 49 (4): 15–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2018.1488470.

Danielewicz, Jane, and Peter Elbow. 2009. “A Unilateral Grading Contract to Improve Learning and Teaching.” College Composition and Communication 61 (2): 244–68.

DeBacher, Sarah, and Deborah Harris-Moore. 2016. “First, Do No Harm: Teaching Writing in the Wake of Traumatic Events.” Composition Forum 34.

Diab, Rasha, Beth Godbee, Thomas Ferrel, and Neil Simpkins. 2012. “A Multi-Dimensional Pedagogy for Racial Justice in Writing Centers.” Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, January. https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_fac/95.

Driscoll, Dana Lynn, and Roger Powell. 2016. “States, Traits, and Dispositions: The Impact of Emotion on Writing Development and Writing Transfer Across College Courses and Beyond.” Composition Forum 34. http://compositionforum.com/issue/34/states-traits.php.

Eyler, Janet, and Dwight E. Giles. 1999. Where’s the Learning in Service-Learning? San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Felten, Peter, and Patti H. Clayton. 2011. “Service-Learning.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning 128: 75–84. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.470.

Godbee, Beth. 2018. “Pedagogical Too-Muchness: A Feminist Approach to Community-Based Learning, Multi-Modal Composition, Social Justice Education, and More.” In Composing Feminist Interventions: Activism, Engagement, Praxis, edited by Kristine L. Blair and Lee Nickoson, 335–53. The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.37514/PER-B.2018.0056.2.17.

Hacker, Douglas J. 1998. “Definitions and Empirical Foundations.” In Metacognition in Educational Theory and Practice, edited by Douglas J. Hacker, John Dunlosky, and Arthur C. Graesser, 1–23. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Hea, Amy C Kimme. 2005. “Developing Stakeholder Relationships: What’s at Stake?” Reflections 4 (2): 54–76.

Hobbs, Carmel, Dane Paulsen, and Jeff Thomas. 2019. “Trauma-Informed Practice for Pre-Service Teachers.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. May 23, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1435.

hooks, bell. 1994. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge.

Hopwood, Tanya L., Nicola S. Schutte, and Natasha M. Loi. 2019. “Anticipatory Traumatic Reaction: Outcomes Arising From Secondary Exposure to Disasters and Large-Scale Threats.” Assessment 26 (8): 1427–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191117731815.

House, Veronica. 2013. “The Reflective Course Model: Changing the Rules for Reflection in Service-Learning Composition Courses.” Reflections 12 (2): 39.

Huston, Therese A., and Michele DiPietro. 2007. “In the Eye of the Storm: Students’ Perceptions of Helpful Faculty Actions Following a Collective Tragedy.” To Improve the Academy 25 (1): 207–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2334-4822.2007.tb00483.x.

Imad, Mays. 2020. “Leveraging the Neuroscience of Now.” Inside Higher Ed, June 3, 2020. https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/06/03/seven-recommendations-helping-students-thrive-times-trauma.

Inman, Joyce Olewski, and Rebecca A. Powell. 2018. “In the Absence of Grades: Dissonance and Desire in Course-Contract Classrooms.” College Composition and Communication 70 (1): 30–56.

Inoue, Asao B. 2015. Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future. The WAC Clearinghouse; Parlor Press. https://doi.org/10.37514/PER-B.2015.0698.

———. 2019. Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom. The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.37514/PER-B.2019.0216.0.

Jarratt, Susan C., Katherine Mack, Alexandra Sartor, and Shevaun E. Watson. 2009. “Pedagogical Memory: Writing, Mapping, Translating.” WPA: Writing Program Administration 33 (1–2): 46–73.

Kiser, Pamela M. 1998. “The Integrative Processing Model: A Framework for Learning in the Field Experience.” Human Service Education 18 (1): 3–13.

———. 2014. The Human Service Internship: Getting the Most from Your Experience. 4th ed. Boston: Cengage.

Kuhn, Deanna, and David Dean Jr. 2004. “Metacognition: A Bridge Between Cognitive Psychology and Educational Practice.” Theory into Practice 43 (4): 268–73. https://doi.org/10.1353/tip.2004.0047.

Lee, Jerry Won. 2016. “Beyond Translingual Writing.” College English 79 (2): 174–95.

Lockett, Alexandria L., Iris D. Ruiz, James Chase Sanchez, and Christopher Carter, eds. 2021. Race, Rhetoric, and Research Methods. The WAC Clearinghouse and University Press of Colorado.

Miller, Kyle, and Karen Flint-Stipp. 2019. “Preservice Teacher Burnout: Secondary Trauma and Self-Care Issues in Teacher Education” 28 (2): 18.

Moore, Jessie L. 2013. “Preparing Advocates: Service-Learning in TESOL for Future Mainstream Educators.” TESOL Journal 4 (3): 555–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tesj.97.

Moreno-Lopez, Isabel. 2005. “Sharing Power with Students: The Critical Language Classroom.” Radical Pedagogy 7 (2). https://radicalpedagogy.icaap.org/content/issue7_2/moreno.html.

Motha, Suhanthie. 2014. Race, Empire, and English Language Teaching: Creating Responsible and Ethical Anti-Racist Practice. New York: Teachers College Press.

Musgrove, Laurence. 1998. “Attitudes Toward Writing.” The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning 4 (1). http://trace.tennessee.edu/jaepl/vol4/iss1/3.

Negretti, Raffaella. 2012. “Metacognition in Student Academic Writing A Longitudinal Study of Metacognitive Awareness and Its Relation to Task Perception, Self-Regulation, and Evaluation of Performance.” Written Communication 29 (2): 142–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088312438529.

O’Grady, Carolyn R., and Beth Chappell. 2000. “With, Not For: The Politics of Service Learning in Multicultural Communities.” In The Politics of Multiculturalism and Bilingual Education: Students and Teachers Caught in the Cross Fire, edited by Carlos J Ovando and Peter McLaren, 208–24. New York: McGraw Hill Education.

Resilient Educator. 2020. “Trauma-Informed Teaching Tips for Classroom & Online Educators.” ResilientEducator.Com. September 24, 2020. https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/trauma-informed-teaching-tips/.

Rosenthal, Lihi, and Iracema Hromnik. 2020. “How Leadership Principles Can Relieve Trauma.” ACSD Express, April 9, 2020. http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol15/num15/how-leadership-principles-can-relieve-trauma.aspx.

Sanders-Reio, Joanne, Patricia A. Alexander, Thomas G. Reio Jr., and Isadore Newman. 2014. “Do Students’ Beliefs about Writing Relate to Their Writing Self-Efficacy, Apprehension, and Performance?” Learning and Instruction 33 (October): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2014.02.001.

Schneider, Jason. 2019. “Teaching in Context: Integrating Community-Based Service Learning into TESOL Education.” TESOL Journal 10 (1): 1–15.

Schraw, Gregory. 1998. “Promoting General Metacognitive Awareness.” Instructional Science 26 (1–2): 113–25. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003044231033.

Sitko, Barbara M. 1998. “Knowing How to Write: Metacognition and Writing Instruction.” In Metacognition in Educational Theory and Practice, edited by Douglas J. Hacker, John Dunlosky, and Arthur C. Graesser, 93–115. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Teaching Tolerance Staff. 2020. “A Trauma-Informed Approach to Teaching Through Coronavirus.” Teaching Tolerance. March 23, 2020. https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/a-trauma-informed-approach-to-teaching-through-coronavirus.

Venet, Alex Shevrin. 2021. Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education. Equality and Social Justice in Education Series. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Yancey, Kathleen Blake. 1998. Reflection in The Writing Classroom. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press.

Jennifer E. Eidum
Elon University | + posts

Jennifer E. Eidum received her PhD in English Language and Rhetoric from the University of Washington, Seattle and is currently Assistant Professor of English at Elon University in North Carolina. Her research focuses on reflection and metacognition, teaching English as a second language, and pedagogies supporting linguistic diversity. In addition to teaching, Jennifer serves as a live-in Faculty Director at Elon, a role which led to her forthcoming book, The Faculty Factor: Developing Faculty Engagement with Living Learning Communities.

Notes

Notes
1 These principles emerge from SAMHSA’s principles of trauma-informed practice. As a White woman acutely aware of the importance of naming the impacts of racism and other intersectional injustices, I wish these principles included race, sexuality, and class as issues to be explicitly addressed rather than folded into “cultural, historical, and gender issues.”
2 At our university, community partnerships are supported through the Kernodle Center for Civic Life. They use the terminology of service-learning, and the TESOL class is formally recognized as an Academic Service Learning (ASL) course, which gives students credit on their transcript. This designation requires 40 hours of service with the community partner, though these hours may be direct service or indirect project-based service. More information can be found here: https://www.elon.edu/u/service-learning/current-students/academic-service-learning/
3 Due to pandemic-related research constraints, these responses were not collected and analyzed in a formal research study. However, I obtained consent from four students to include excerpts of their writing here, and two students from the class have reviewed and provided feedback to this manuscript.
4 Using Google Drive, I upload a copy of course readings as a .pdf into a folder for each group. Students access their group’s copy of the text and leave comments on the document, either creating unique comments directly to the text or commenting to their group mates. This creates conversations with the author of the text as well as with their group mates, and serves as the foundation of class discussion. In addition to using Google Drive, faculty have reported success using programs such as hypothes.is for collaborative annotation.
5 Examples of unsolicited feedback includes this excerpt from a student email: “I just wanted to say I notice how you genuinely care about our wellness, and our concerns. I thank you so much, and feel grateful to have a professor like you.” On Twitter, one student wrote, “[the instructor] makes us feel human before we ever begin to feel like a student” and another student added, “I have never felt more validated for every single emotion I may have than I do every time I enter [this class].”
6 Contract grading systems can also support antiracist, translingual, and critical pedagogy approaches to teaching and learning by challenging traditional structures of assessment. See Inoue (2015; 2019) for antiracist contract grading and Lee (2016) for more on translingualism and contract grading in the writing classroom, and Moreno-Lopez (2005) for a discussion of critical pedagogy and contract grading in the Spanish language classroom.