Trauma-Informed Praxis as a Building Block of Justice-Centered Science

Context: Justice-centered science education has come about as a means to challenge the often ahistorical and acultural nature of traditional science teaching and learning to address the social, political, and scientific ways science can be used to (re)produce, but also address, (in)justice. Despite these efforts, the complex emotional, physical, and moral dimensions of engaging in justice-centered practices are under-conceptualized, especially for youth living in areas historically and contemporarily affected by social, political, and environmental change. More specifically, there remains one injustice that has gone largely unexplored in the science education literature: trauma. Purpose of Study: When we consider the historic and contemporary racist paradigms of the scientific discipline and how that has bled into science teaching and learning, coupled with rates of multiple, intersecting forms of trauma—including those that are the result of science and schooling—the need for trauma-informed science learning becomes abundantly evident. In this conceptual article, we present a framework for trauma-informed science (TIS) as a critical pedagogical approach that builds upon and extends trauma-informed and justice-centered science literature to situate trauma, healing and well-being as an integral part of justice. We argue that this framework can support educators in constructing science learning experiences that center the healing and well-being of their students as a practice of justice. Research Design: We use the cell, the most basic unit of life, and its organelles, each of which performs a specialized function, as metaphors to conceptualize TIS as a foundational building block of justice-centered science. Just as a cell could not survive without all its organelles working together, the principles of TIS work in conjunction to help teachers reimagine the political and pedagogical ways in which they approach justice-centered science teaching. TIS is made up of six principles: (1) engage in justice-centered science practice; (2) focus on the role of race, racism, and other systems of domination; (3) center love as praxis and protection; (4) ground learning in safety, dignity, and belonging; (5) attune to emotionality and embodiment; and (6) situate healing as an active and ongoing process Conclusion: Because of the historical and contemporary ways that science, scientific enterprise, and science education have been used to perpetrate and justify trauma, coupled with rising rates of childhood trauma, there is a moral and pedagogical imperative that makes science education a ripe place to address trauma and center healing. We offer TIS not as a simple instructional shift or a pedagogical add-on, but as a fundamentally different pedagogical, epistemological, and political approach to the practice of justice-centered science teaching to support life-giving and life-affirming science learning experiences. Ultimately, we argue that we cannot say we are working toward justice-centered science education and classrooms if we remain unwilling to center the healing and well-being of students, families, and communities.