Listening to the Speaking Wound

Abstract

This article discusses theoretical lenses drawn from scholars in the interdisciplinary field of trauma studies to consider students’ positioning in relation to emotional-cognitive, private-public dichotomies that permeate normative notions of what can and should count as successful engagement with school. Specifically, we explicate Caruth’s metaphor of the speaking wound, in conversation with other trauma studies scholarship, to consider the representations of lived experiences carried into classrooms and the consequences of interpreting and representing students’ lives. To provide context for our conceptual argument, we discuss qualitative data of two students’ experiences across a school year. We argue that trauma theory illuminates two overlapping, yet distinguishable, ways trauma can be productively conceptualized in schools and marshaled as a context for analyzing structural inequities: first, to consider the trauma individuals carry into classrooms as a potential source for deepening students’ connections to school; second, to recognize how some students’ positioning within the institution of public schooling in the United States constitutes a trauma that must be heard and proactively addressed. In both conceptualizations, we argue for inserting trauma theory into conversations about the moral and pedagogical imperative to work toward increased equity in schools and classrooms.

Growing Together: Literacy and Agency in an Early‐College Research Collaborative

“…To guide our analysis, we leverage what Filipiak (2018) discussed elsewhere as an agentive ecological framework, tracing agency as it lived through the leadership philosophy of program administrators, the pedagogy adopted by the teacher of the course, and later through the literacy practices and identities that students enacted as they critically engaged with educational issues through YPAR. The guideposts of agency undergirding this framework include agency as cultural representation, agency as healing, and agency as critical literacy to illuminate how literacy engagements in YPAR are leveraged against factors that are frequently captured in the literature as being hindrances to the success of historically underrepresented students (Alvermann & Hagood, 2000;Dutro & Bien, 2014;Ladson-Billings, 1995).…”

Trauma in English learners: Examining the influence of previous trauma and PTSD on English learners and within the classroom

“…From the state's standardized testing being the only view of success to the various teachers’ negative views about the students, it is not surprising that students such as Diego were operating within unfair conditions. In fact, this scenario is well summarized when the researchers say, “The hard stories can quickly position children as challenges, rather than as having faced challenges, or frame children as problems, rather than as remarkable human beings who have faced catastrophe and survived” (Dutro & Bien, , p. 16). This again raises the issue of how an immigrant or refugee situation alone, without mention of past trauma, can cause explicit inegalities in their education.…”

“…Some trauma theorists suggest that the “relationship between some students’ difficult positioning in schools and a concept of trauma as the ongoing, accruing impact and consequences of social malignancies such as racism, sexism, and homophobia” (Dutro & Bien, , p. 23). Therefore, if teachers are wanting to increase equity, connection, and access for all students, it is imperative that student trauma is acknowledged and fairly responded to within the school.…”

“…Therefore, if teachers are wanting to increase equity, connection, and access for all students, it is imperative that student trauma is acknowledged and fairly responded to within the school. After all, “if a child's wounds must be hidden upon entering, it seems unrealistic to expect that child to forge deep ties to the school” (Dutro & Bien, , p. 23). This assertion relates to more than overt past traumas; it could convey any difficult situation, such as being an undocumented immigrant or coming from a poverty‐stricken family.…”

Memory Quilts and Hope Chests: Adult Learners Craft Counterstories in Their Community Museum

“…This reiterates inflexible, unresponsive educational systems. Although a curriculum focused on meeting the test's standards can help students fulfill their hope of earning a HSE, teaching in a way informed by educational trauma has potential to restore positive relationships to learning (Dutro & Bien, 2014). Thus, adult educators across the country are working to innovate student-centered education models that can effectively support learners in developing and demonstrating their skills (Davidson, 2017).…”