Seeing Race in the Research on Youth Trauma and Education: A Critical Review

Abstract

The growing body of scholarship on youth trauma in educational contexts has yielded promising discoveries about resources, programs, and practices that may improve success outcomes for trauma-exposed youth in U.S. schools. However, there is a lack of systematic review of this research from a race-conscious perspective. This article uses a racialization framework to examine how trauma is discussed in the literature with respect to youth in preK–12 educational contexts. This review sheds light on the potential ways a structurally racist and White supremacist system can shape students’ experiences with trauma and the dominant explanatory frames for discussing and addressing trauma. Finally, this article contributes ideas for conducting race-conscious trauma research, shifting trauma discourses, and building race-conscious pathways for supporting trauma-exposed youth.

Why Don’t You See Me?: Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Black Male Students

“…Trauma has long term implications. However, teacher education programs and school districts should incorporate the work of researchers including Alvarez (2020) to ensure they focus on race. Moreover, education programs have to examine their curricula to determine if students are prepared to meet the needs of students including refugees.…”

“…While recognizing that trauma disproportionately impacts Black students because of systemic racism; researchers including Alvarez (2020) have cautioned against pathologizing underserved populations. The author calls for a race conscious focus.…”

“…The author calls for a race conscious focus. According to Alvarez (2020), When researchers report that supporting trauma-exposed youth will require an interdisciplinary group of voices to engage in deeper discussions about systems, policies, and practices, we should be asking whose voices are included and whether those voices can acknowledge how systems, policies, and practices unjustly affect the lives and school experiences of many Black and Brown children in the United State. (p. 584) Alvarez articulates the relationship between race and narratives controlled by groups in power.…”

Masking Attendance: How Education Policy Distracts from the Wicked Problem(s) of Chronic Absenteeism

“…Understanding how to support the well-being of students has gained prominence in education (Alvarez, 2017, 2020). Schools and districts have seen an increase in resources to prevent suicide, school violence, bullying (in-person and online), and mental illness (Embrey & Rosiak, 2020).…”

The Limits of Justice-Informed Research and Teaching in the Presence of Antiblackness and Black Suffering: Surplus of Transformation or (Un)Just Traumatic Returns?

“…I state from the onset that my goal is not to address how schools should address student/youth trauma (Alvarez, 2020) or trauma-informed teaching (Khasnabis & Goldin, 2020). These are important questions, amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.…”