Utilizing the living schools philosophy, to enhance trauma-informed practice in a high school setting

Abstract

Healthy students are better learners. We know this intuitively, and research supports it (Basch, 2011). We know schools as environments where students attain the knowledge and skills they need for lifelong health and well-being. However, how do we create healthy schools when our students have, or are, experiencing abuse, neglect and dysfunction? The emotional and behavioural disorders that may be associated with early exposures to trauma, not only impact the child’s ability to thrive and learn, but they can also impact their peers, and the staff in the schools they attend. The attainment of overall school health is influenced if intentional and focused work is not directed towards mitigating the impacts of trauma on our staff and students because it influences brain development, including executive function, self-regulation, baseline physiological arousal levels, and social-emotional learning and skills development. By addressing these issues, schools can begin to bring all students closer to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) vision for schools that are Health-Promoting Schools (WHO, 2009). O’Brien and Howard (2016) developed the concept of Living Schools, inspired by the Living Campus project at Dawson College, in Montreal. Dawson College experienced a communal traumatic event in 2006 when a single gunman injured 16 people and killed one student. In the aftermath, the College created the Living Campus as a restorative and transformative paradigm shift, grounded in the vision of well-being for all, sustainability and the reconnection of people and community to nature. The example Dawson College created allows me to wonder if a high school can incorporate the components of Trauma-Informed Practice, TIP (safety, the impact of trauma on the brain, the importance of relationships, the need to attend to self-regulation and executive functioning skills) (Blaustein & Kinneburgh, 2010) into the creation of a Living Schools environment. The aim of a trauma-informed classroom, according to Pickens & Tschopp (2017), “is to infuse an understanding of the impact of trauma and adverse life experiences on students into the classroom culture and promote a physically and psychologically safe environment to foster student growth” (p. 1). This research explores the feasibility of utilizing the Living Schools Attributes and Practices Framework (Howard & O’Brien, 2018) to enrich TIP. Some of the central elements of the Living Schools Framework1 that were explored are a focus on nature and place-based learning, sustainability education, and pedagogies that contribute to developing a solution-focused growth mindset, assisting students to identify and build on their individual strengths and talents, as well as fostering empathy and compassion for others, and an improved sense of personal well-being.