There is limited research and few published studies that look specifically at how teachers are utilizing a trauma-informed approach in their classrooms. Although trauma models exist in resource rich countries, information that explores the implementation and practice of these models is largely missing in the literature concerning resource poor countries. This article explores Hagar International Cambodia's trauma-informed education model and the experiences of therapists and educators working with traumatised children.
The majority of trauma and resilience research in Cambodia has focussed on survivors of the Khmer Rouge. This qualitative study set out to discover what protective factors promote resilience in young trauma survivors who are at least one generation removed. A Grounded Theory approach offered a guiding resilience framework that shaped 40 interviews: 26 participants comprised of Cambodian young people (ages 18-30) who had experienced significant early childhood trauma and 14 key informants from the Cambodian Child Protection non-governmental organization sector. Data from the young people was collected through the use of three instruments: semi-structured interviews, a narrative timeline of events and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. These instruments were used to explore factors relating to recovery, resilience and wellbeing among the Cambodian young people. Key informant interviews were conducted to help understand how the Child Protection sector assists recovery from trauma in Cambodia. Analysis of the participants’ oral narratives sought to uncover, understand and explain the phenomena of resilience and factors contributing to their recovery, in a post-Khmer Rouge contemporary Cambodian context. According to the young people, key factors contributing to their recovery included emotional regulation, faith and spirituality, opportunities for education and employment, social connectedness and meaning making.
Trauma is a global phenomenon that affects millions each year. Recovery from trauma is challenging and approaches vary between cultures and models. Faith and spirituality have long-been traditional modes for healing in cultures worldwide. However, through a largely Western-dominated medical model of treatment, healing through religion and spirituality had been often overlooked in favor of medical diagnoses and psychiatric treatment. The ability to recover from traumatic circumstances and adversity is known as resilience. Yet there is limited research available on how faith and spirituality may build resilience in the aftermath of trauma and its application in developing countries, such as Cambodia. The aim of this qualitative study was to understand what factors, including faith and spirituality, had enabled the recovery from trauma of Cambodian young people, through the collection of their oral narratives. The young people reported that coping strategies, such as faith and spirituality, played a role in in transforming their lived traumatic experiences into strengths. This paper explores faith as a resilience factor and how faith and spirituality may support healing and positive-growth outcomes for young Cambodians recovering from trauma.
Resilience research is currently dominated by Western theoretical frameworks, concepts, constructions, worldviews and understandings. Applying a Western construction of resilience to other global settings, is challenged by the fact that cultural practices central to different cultural identities, may not be acknowledged. This paper will present new and existing ways of conceptualising resilience and proposes that the term dynamism may be more culturally appropriate for capturing the concept of resilience in cross-cultural settings. The term dynamism has been crafted from research that initially sought to understand resilience and recovery among young Cambodian trauma survivors (See Wyatt, 2021). The research endeavoured to situate the concept of resilience within a non-Western, Cambodia-specific context. This study looked at factors that enabled young people to move forward with their lives and do remarkably well, despite significant childhood trauma (Wyatt, 2021). This paper is an extension of the key findings and will focus on the construction of the term resilience and its usefulness in cross-cultural settings. Furthermore, this article will present a model for dynamism and how this may be helpful in understanding recovery from trauma in cross-cultural contexts.
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