Deciphering Truth: Teaching About the Systemic Nature of Trauma

Our work rests upon empirical and conceptual frameworks of systemically trauma-informed practice (SysTIP) to bring criticality to current conceptualizations of trauma-informed education. This paper presents (1) a description of a case-based exercise with elaborated design considerations that serve to illuminate mundane racial injustices occurring in schools as they intersect with trauma and (2) an analysis of teacher candidates’ learning, using artifacts of their classwork on the case-based exercise and their interactions with their instructors. This paper fortifies educators’ abilities to move beyond color-evasive (Annamma et al., 2017) views of trauma-informed practice and provide models of how individuals can act in anti-racist, systemically trauma-informed ways.