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In his book, The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog (2006), Bruce Perry describes the environment needed to support trauma victims in healing. While I am not implying that the adolescent brain is a traumatized brain, there are common structural and functional characteristics between a typically developing adolescent brain and a brain impacted by stress and trauma. Additionally, it is important for educators to appreciate the prevalence of ACEs and environmental stressors associated with Socio-Economic Status (SES). The need to be aware of, and support, a rising population of students with behavioural, academic, and developmental challenges associated with toxic stress has led to Trauma Informed Care and Trauma Sensitive Schools, in which common practices are rooted in a culture of empathy, connection, respect, and support.
The following strategies and resources focus on building classroom and school environments that align neuroscience with practices that support self-determination, trauma sensitivity, and reconciliation in order to promote thriving educational communities.
Wahkohtowin
Wahkohtowin
In his book, The Social Neuroscience of Education (2014), Louis Cozolino describes a classroom in which students and teachers work together to solve problems and find ways for each individual to make a positive and important contribution to the community. He calls this a “tribal classroom” and posits that “while western culture has changed a great deal during the last 5 000 years, the social instincts, physiology, and biochemistry of the neural networks that evolved for 100,000 years in the context of tribal life remain essentially unchanged” (p. xxiv).
The Wahkohtowin classroom is one with foundations in the Cree Natural Law which governs all things. A code of conduct, or way to live well with one another, in which respect, responsibility and connectedness are foundational. It creates an authentic, social learning environment that supports the neural processes necessary for learning and meets the basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness.
I use the video to launch the idea of Wahkohtowin and establish a classroom foundation of respect, responsibility, and kinship.
Students were asked to respond to the video using a video response form and personal response journals.
Students were also tasked to create an anchor chart to which we could refer for the rest of the year. The example provided was made using Canva.
https://blog.edmentum.com/what-circle-of-courage-and-how-can-you-use-it-enhance-your-teaching-practice
Circle of Courage
Circle of Courage
Before there was SDT, there was the Circle of Courage. In their book, Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Our Hope for the Future (1990), the authors point out that traditional First Nations philosophies of child-rearing, based on the idea that the central purpose in life was the education and empowerment of children, was aligned with the basic components of self-esteem and the creation of positive self-identity.
Significance - Belonging - Relatedness
Competence - Mastery
Power - Independence - Autonomy
Virtue - Generosity - Wellness
Lessons and activity ideas:
discuss, and providing opportunity for the development of, each component of the Circle of Courage
Students can create their own personal Circle of courage with symbols and words that connect to their own lives.
Ethical Decision Making
Ethical Decision Making
A supportive classroom environment that honours students' psychological need for autonomy must also explicitly teach the skills necessary in order to make competent, well-informed choices and set the intentions for respecting different opinions, values, customs, and practices.
Lesson:
Watch the video
Discuss and take notes
Watch the video again
Create anchor chart
Personal Response Questions
Trauma Informed Care
Trauma Informed Care
This free online course was designed for everyone who works within a care-based profession. Although not designed exclusively for educators, it offers valuable insight and training about trauma informed practices that create safe and caring learning environments. Click here to access the Trauma-Informed Care e-Learning Series.
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