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Dr Anne Southall |
Keynote Title:
Trauma informed education: From the inside out.
Over the past two decades the fields of neuroscience and psychology has informed our growing understanding of the profound and long-term impact of traumatic experience on the brain during early childhood. Knowledge from these disciplines is gradually being translated into policy and practice in the field of education. Referred to as ‘trauma informed education’, this ‘outside in’ approach has largely excluded the educator and the perspective of the persons intended to benefit most – students from backgrounds of abuse and neglect. How might including these voices shape new understandings, change our view or influence program design? At the centre of this presentation is a narrative inquiry of a 14 year old boy in out of home care who communicates his experience of school, the professionals who support him and the teachers he challenges daily. The deconstruction of his themes are then explored by a group of teachers implementing trauma informed practices. Through a model of critical reflection, they examined their experiences and the assumptions they were making to unsettle and change dominant and taken-for-granted thinking. The insights from this research challenge our current approaches and frame a more egalitarian dialogue that optimises the potential for higher levels of agency, relationship and learning. What are the pedagogies that emerge from this ‘inside out’ approach and how can we better support educators in this complex, interpersonal work?
Dr. Anne Southall has over 30 years experience working in the field of special education and mainstream primary schools in both Australia and the UK. A Principal for many years, she developed an interest in the education of children from traumatic backgrounds and interventions which mitigate the impact of these experiences on their learning and achievement in school. Her play ‘Biting the Hand‘ is based on her research from the traumatised student‘s perspective and is performed for educators to raise their awareness of their experience of school. A strong advocate of supporting educators in this work, she has developed a model of professional supervision based on allied health models and modified for schools, to strengthen the interpersonal aspects of the teachers work. The Reflective Circle Education Model (RCEM) has been piloted in schools in regional Victoria. In her current role she is a Senior Lecturer in Inclusive Education and Trauma and coordinates the Master of Education by coursework at La Trobe University Victoria, Australia. Her research involves working in partnership with education providers to further pilot and develop a Trauma informed pedagogical framework which maximises the learning opportunities for our most vulnerable learners.
Trauma informed education: From the inside out.
Over the past two decades the fields of neuroscience and psychology has informed our growing understanding of the profound and long-term impact of traumatic experience on the brain during early childhood. Knowledge from these disciplines is gradually being translated into policy and practice in the field of education. Referred to as ‘trauma informed education’, this ‘outside in’ approach has largely excluded the educator and the perspective of the persons intended to benefit most – students from backgrounds of abuse and neglect. How might including these voices shape new understandings, change our view or influence program design? At the centre of this presentation is a narrative inquiry of a 14 year old boy in out of home care who communicates his experience of school, the professionals who support him and the teachers he challenges daily. The deconstruction of his themes are then explored by a group of teachers implementing trauma informed practices. Through a model of critical reflection, they examined their experiences and the assumptions they were making to unsettle and change dominant and taken-for-granted thinking. The insights from this research challenge our current approaches and frame a more egalitarian dialogue that optimises the potential for higher levels of agency, relationship and learning. What are the pedagogies that emerge from this ‘inside out’ approach and how can we better support educators in this complex, interpersonal work?
Dr. Anne Southall has over 30 years experience working in the field of special education and mainstream primary schools in both Australia and the UK. A Principal for many years, she developed an interest in the education of children from traumatic backgrounds and interventions which mitigate the impact of these experiences on their learning and achievement in school. Her play ‘Biting the Hand‘ is based on her research from the traumatised student‘s perspective and is performed for educators to raise their awareness of their experience of school. A strong advocate of supporting educators in this work, she has developed a model of professional supervision based on allied health models and modified for schools, to strengthen the interpersonal aspects of the teachers work. The Reflective Circle Education Model (RCEM) has been piloted in schools in regional Victoria. In her current role she is a Senior Lecturer in Inclusive Education and Trauma and coordinates the Master of Education by coursework at La Trobe University Victoria, Australia. Her research involves working in partnership with education providers to further pilot and develop a Trauma informed pedagogical framework which maximises the learning opportunities for our most vulnerable learners.
