Reflections and Resources for Understanding Trauma

This page presents, in addition to organizing additional outside resources supporting trauma-informed learning and teaching, direct insight from the voices and experiences of education professionals working closely with incarcerated programming.

Trauma-Informed, Carceral-Impacted Learning: Starting a Critical Conversation

The following is a podcast-style interview with Allen Burnett, M.A. Communication Studies, who spent nearly 30 years in prison with the sentence of life without possibility of parole (LWOP). As a scholar and as an actively engaged Communication Studies professional, Burnett's work is deeply, directly, continually, and openly informed by the experiences and contributions of all incarcerated populations, with special emphasis and insight directed to the experiences of others who have been sentenced to LWOP. In this initial video reviewing and elaborating on the materials within this module, Burnett substantively discusses critical aspects of trauma-informed/informing experiences with compassion fatigue, unconscious bias within the communication environment, and academic anxiety.

Content notice: This video addresses issues related to sexual assault and abuse, including related and other adverse and traumatic childhood experiences.

Perspectives from Faculty “Share Out” Sessions

“Many educators reported feeling like the classroom was such a positive place to learn and be together with students. For example, one experience that was reported was in direct contrast to teaching on community college campuses. Students in our program often read every material that they are assigned, and are very prepared to discuss enthusiastically. They [commonly] want to participate, and are excited to learn.”
“Some students might have experienced previous educational trauma — some might still be experiencing trauma in the institution. Students are policed frequently, and have a lack of autonomy and space to complete their work at times, so being reasonably flexible with students goes a long way. Many students live in pods of 8 or more people, which makes it difficult to study. Checking in with students on how they live/study — tools, tricks, etc. — can be helpful for an instructor, and for new students. Offering in-class time to read a bit, or read and work out problems together in class with other students is also helpful.”
“If you are welcoming, students will feel safe to express themselves through their work and in class. Often they don't have many opportunities or spaces to try out their own knowledge and experiences and work through past traumas, so giving them the space they need really makes a difference in their overall life.”
“Prison staff is usually very helpful as we will be working with folks in education who care a lot about education, they often ensure we have what we need to facilitate our classes and are great contacts to communicate [with] in the event something arises. Get to know the educators at the prison.”
“Guards/Correctional Officers are often focusing on their job, which is to maintain order and safety. They might not always be smiling and friendly. But that is not to say that mutual respect isn’t possible. As educators our mission is different from the guards, but ultimately the guards want to ensure boundaries are set because their top priority is for everyone to be safe. But keeping in mind that we are college faculty and our position is to educate [students]. We might be in a prison, but our classes are facilitated similarly to [traditional] campus classes where we treat people with respect, don’t avoid disagreement (we learn by challenging others beliefs) and be charitable to others.”
“Resources in prison vary greatly. Be sure to find out what students need like paper, pencils, etc. They often come from work change (their job) and so it is difficult to go through checkpoints with a lot of stuff and on time. Realizing that some students might trickle in late.”
“Guards will come in during your class to collect Identification cards from the students if it is at a time where they do counts (count all of the residents). You continue to teach, students should lay their IDs on the table as they walk in so they are accessible for the guards without disrupting your course.” [Some facilities have a variation on this process, to which students will be more attuned.]
“There are usually sign-in sheets, have students sign in as they enter class.”
“Be prepared to be changed. Teaching in prison has changed my life, the way I think about education, and the way I see myself as a facilitator of knowledge. I learn everyday from students and their vastly differing perspectives. Knowledge is shared and received.”
“I remember my first day teaching, students knew I was new and asked me, 'What made you decide to teach here?' I had to really question my own motivations. I was honest and vulnerable. I think they respected that. Trust is a really important concept in our classrooms. If you say something, they will remember, so I make sure to keep my word!”

Critical Reflection

Our role as learning facilitators or instructors is to lead a positive and safe place to be and learn together. Within the incarcerated classroom context, students with a history of varying degrees of trauma will always be in our classrooms. Anger, seeming withdrawn, leaving the classroom unexpectedly/abruptly, hyperactive behavior, and comments unrelated to the topic at hand may signal certain kinds of trauma.

Traumatic experiences generate painful emotions. Emotions are energy in motion that is lodged in the cells and various parts of the body until it is released through kinetic force of expression. That energy often comes out in the ways aforementioned. All students and others with trauma can be holding these emotions, at least what has not been released, in their body. When we cry, when we accept and allow our concerns with a past event to release, settle, and move forward, we may become temporarily depressed, but we release that energy nonetheless.

When we are inside the classroom, we must be aware of the signs and understand what is happening. The second step is to explore options for counseling with the facility's educational coordinators and with your college. Resources in prisons vary and so each situation will be different for the instructors, but we explore the options available to the students. Still as of recent years, many instructors have not been able to secure services to students who displayed behaviors that indicate they are experiencing triggers. Perhaps this can change.

Additional Resources

The "Sustaining Futures" materials (download the PDF) included throughout this module were used in training sessions throughout California community colleges that have a prison education program. The training included in-depth guidance, personal assessments, and other materials on understanding trauma as it relates to incarcerated students, understanding how our own trauma in carceral spaces can affect us, as well as how your college’s prison education program can continue to cultivate and spread awareness of the impact of trauma on teaching and learning. The training sessions were open to all college staff actively supporting a prison education program.

“The Prison BA Journal [access the journal] Links to an external site. is an annual publication of The Department of Communication Studies, which provides incarcerated Cal State LA students in California State Prison in Lancaster the opportunity to publish their academic work and a chance to have their research and writing seen by others in our field of study. By creating a dialogue through the publication of this journal we hope to better address the problems of mass incarceration. The journal also serves as a textbook companion to Interpersonal Communication: Putting Theory into Practice, 2nd edition by Denise Solomon and Jennifer Theiss. Writings in the journal have also been used by animation students to create a series of short animation documentaries. Other links also include video recordings of student performances based on their course work. Future issues will include writings and performances on the experience of attending higher education courses during the pandemic.” (Dr. Kamran Afary, California State University, Los Angeles)

Intentional Insights: "[Learn] through the Side Door"

An English faculty's perspective. I often teach Creative Writing: Poetry. In my experience, there's something about writing poetry that almost invites the exploration of personal experiences or emotions. I'm not sure why this is, exactly. Nonetheless, sometimes students utilize the medium of poetry and the classroom to unpack certain life events or experiences. As such, trauma often bubbles up from their written work.

A few years ago, I learned a strategy for writing about trauma at the Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference, hosted by Arizona State University. Chels Knorr presented "Enter Through the Side Door: Ways to Write Through the Darkness," which offered "entering through a side door" as a promising practice for writing that explored trauma.

This is a strategy I often use, myself, and one that students could use when they express that they're having a difficult time getting a particularly challenging poem down on paper, but they still feel compelled to explore it.

Writing from a "side door" suggests that, rather than come at the focus head-on or from a "front door," which might be too painful, a writer can consider taking out the "I" of the poem and explore how an outside observer might witness the event or grapple with the trauma. This outside observer doesn't need to be a person; it can easily be an object, animal, sense, etc. It can also take a different form. If not an outright poem, what about a grocery list, recipe, email, map directions, a horoscope?

An example that I'll share with you, that I don't really share with my students, focuses on a miscarriage I experienced about a year and a half ago. As one of my coping strategies, I wrote poetry to process the experience. However, explicitly writing about how I felt and what I was experiencing was much too painful, emotionally. So, I took the "I" out and wrote a poem from the viewpoint and experience of the placenta. This "side door" helped me still get it all down on paper without engaging with that trauma in a way that might have felt harmful or unproductive.

It should be noted that my students are never intentionally prompted to write about such painful traumatic events. However, though I am in no way an expert, I think that (when appropriate) encouraging students to use "side doors" for classes, discussions, or writing assignments that possibly lend themselves to intrusive or unwanted feelings might support growth and learning inside and outside of the classroom.

Reflections and Resources for Understanding Trauma