Trauma and Learning in the ESOL classroom: What do we know? What can we learn?

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Trauma and Learning in the ESOL classroom What
do we know? What can we learn?

• on the screen women, learning and
  violence
• NIFL fellowship, 1999-2000
• Janet Isserlis
• janet_isserils_at_brown.edu

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goals of this workshop

• to
• share knowledge, experience, and understanding of
  effective ways of working with ESOL adults
• explore classroom approaches designed to
  accommodate a range of learning needs, strengths,
  and circumstances, with a particular focus on
  ESOL learners
• review research on and strategies for ensuring
  the development of safe spaces for learning
• move our practice forward to support teaching and
  learning for all

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Whos here? What do we know?

• Who we are, experience with/interest in trauma
  and learning
• Questions/issues to raise
• Rationale why consider impacts of violence and
  trauma?
• Cautions/considerations for the group

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brief background - initial thinking/learning

• Jenny Horsman, Something in my Mind Besides
  the Everyday
• http//www.jennyhorsman.com
• CCLOW - Making Connections Literacy and
  EAL from a Feminist Perspective
  http//www.nald.ca/fulltext/
• Making_C/Cover.htm

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Why ask the question? To increase
awareness in order to make lasting impacts on
teaching and learning

• To examine impacts of trauma and violence on
  adult learning
• To strengthen practice, including
• - material development
• - teaching/learning approaches
• - program design and policy

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What did we do?

• 10 practitioners, 10 months
• Application process to clarify expectations
• Monthly meetings
• Ongoing reflection/correspondence
• Workshops for participants, including
• - DV support providers
• - Richard Hoffman, Half the House
• - Jenny Horsman, Too Scared To Learn
  Women, Violence and Education

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additional activities and resources

• trauma counselor on call
• - collective learning, face-to-face, online and
  through ongoing research
• workshops facilitated for learners and adult
  literacy workers beyond participant cohort
• - intergenerational literacy project at shelter
• - ongoing reflection, journal writing, listserv

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So what?

• - work/collaboration/thinking across disciplines
  
• child protective workers, case managers (within
  and beyond adult education)
• awareness of shared constituency
• - increased awareness system-wide
• - policy shifts, especially recently - (e.g.
  through persistence studies)

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what gets in the way of learning and teaching?

• - violence - poverty
• - racism - dis/abilities
• - immigration status/history
• - health and mental health
• - gender - sexual orientation
• - un/employment - housing/food security
• - religion - economic status

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Ongoing steps

• Infusing/integrating awareness into all aspects
  of adult literacy work
• Recognizing school privilege with adult
  learners, practitioners and policy makers
• other ideas
• ________________________________
• ________________________________
• ________________________________

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To learn more theory, life practice

• Inger
  Agger, The Blue Room Trauma and Testimony
  Among Refugee Women A Psycho- Social
  Exploration
• recourse support for staff in FE and HE
  http//recourse.org.uk
• Tanya Lewis, Living Beside Performing Normal
  After Incest Memories Return
• http//www.brown.edu/lrri/screenref.html
•  

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To learn more classroom practice

• On the Screen http//www.brown.edu/lrri/screen.h
  tml
• Learning and Violence Dreams of a different
  world towards ending violence and inequality
  http//www.learningandviolence.net/dreams.htm
• World Education, Women, Violence,
• and Adult Education Project
  http//www.worlded.org/docs/TakeOnTheChallenge.pdf
  
•   contact janet_isserlis_at_brown.edu