Trauma-Responsive Schooling: Centering Student Voice and Healing

Trauma-Responsive Schooling outlines a novel approach to transforming American schools through student-centered, trauma-informed practices.
The book chronicles the use of an innovative educational model, Trauma-Responsive Equitable Education (TREE), as part of a multiyear research project in two elementary schools in rural Maine. In this model, Lyn Mikel Brown, Catharine Biddle, and Mark Tappan endorse whole-school change, encouraging educators to upend traditional classroom power dynamics by listening foremost to student voices, validating student experiences, and promoting student agency.
The authors provide complex real-life examples of student involvement in the creation and implementation of trauma-responsive and equitable practices. Their work offers readers concrete, actionable examples of such practices, which include supporting the whole child by promoting social and emotional learning (SEL) as well as academic achievement; providing access to basic needs such as food, clothing, and health care; and meeting the instructional requirements of dual-language learners.
Many rural schools in the United States experience low student achievement and high absenteeism rates as their geographically isolated communities struggle with poverty, substance abuse, and other significant stressors. Yet, as the authors demonstrate, supportive learning environments, even in under-resourced rural schools, are able to mitigate adversity, stress, and trauma—and thus promote healing.
This heartening work illustrates that, when educators and school leaders put student needs and interests at the core of school life, long-lasting change for all students is possible.
From the Back Cover
Trauma-Responsive Schooling outlines a novel approach to transforming American schools through student-centered, trauma-informed practices. The book chronicles the use of an innovative educational model, Trauma-Responsive Equitable Education (TREE), as part of a multiyear research project in two elementary schools in rural Maine. Lyn Mikel Brown, Catharine Biddle, and Mark Tappan encourage educators to upend traditional classroom power dynamics by listening foremost to student voices, validating student experiences, and promoting student agency.
This heartening work illustrates that when educators and school leaders put student needs and interests at the core of school life, long-lasting change for all students is possible.
“No young person can learn and thrive, much less heal, if they don’t feel safe, seen, heard, and loved. Trauma-Responsive Schooling offers teachers and administrators vivid, real-world examples of how to build learning environments where the whole child—their experiences, needs, passions, and capabilities—is revealed. The result is a recipe for student thriving and success.”
—Pamela Cantor, founder and senior science advisor of Turnaround for Children and author of Whole-Child Development, Learning, and Thriving: A Dynamic Systems Approach
“This book is a gift to educators, recounting a remarkable project in rural Maine that serves as a model for all who are invested in children's resilience and creativity. At the core of Trauma-Responsive Schooling is a simple lesson: children are humans. They have a voice, and not only do they deserve to be listened to, their thoughts and perceptions are crucial to designing effective educational interventions.”
—Carol Gilligan, author of In a Different Voice and co-author of Why Does Patriarchy Persist?
Lyn Mikel Brown is a professor of education at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Catharine Biddle is an associate professor of educational leadership at the University of Maine. Mark Tappan is a professor of education at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.