Trauma-Aware Education

Now, more than ever, in a world of stress, disadvantage and unpredictability, schools struggle to manage the confronting needs of some of our most disadvantaged and vulnerable learners — those suffering complex trauma. This type of trauma stems from repeated interpersonal harm done to children, including physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, significant neglect, and the experience of family or other relational violence. These learners require a ‘trauma-aware’ response. Behaviour management techniques that may work for most learners often fail when used with trauma-impacted children.

This book assists educators from an individual and system perspective in developing trauma-aware education frameworks to enable learners and educators to avoid the devastating effects of complex trauma on mental health. It examines and discusses the impacts of complex and other trauma on learners and how trauma-aware education provides an informed approach to remedy these concerns.

Topics covered include:

• the impacts of complex trauma
• the evidence-base for trauma-aware education
• a paradigm shift in the way learner behaviours are ‘managed’
• effective strategies for a trauma-aware education response
• working with learners who live with disability
• a trauma-aware approach for early childhood education and care
• maintaining well-being for educators
• leadership of trauma-aware education in sites and systems.