Abstract
Carolyn Mears brings a unique perspective as editor of the book, Reclaiming School in the Aftermath of Trauma: Advice Based on Experience as she is the parent of a Columbine High School student who was in the school during the mass shooting in 1999. Mears holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Denver and is now one of the nation’s leading experts on the trauma associated with school shootings and other tragedies affecting students.
Mears’ book will help educators understand how trauma affects teaching and learning and how certain responses, policies and instructional practices help students better adjust and continue learning after a traumatic event. Although up to 25 per cent of students experience a traumatic event that can have negative impacts on their learning and behavior, most teachers do not know how to adjust instructional practices to meet their needs: ‘Only by becoming aware of what trauma looks like in a classroom and how adjustments can be made to instruction, curriculum, and environments, will educators be able to help students resume their learning’ (p. 5). Students who have experienced a traumatic event, or who have suffered from witnessing one, often disconnect from others who have not experienced trauma, making recovery complicated.
The purpose of this book is to provide educators, leaders, administrators and policy-makers with information to help them prepare for the worst situations so that they can make good decisions in the event of a rampage shooting, natural disaster or other catastrophe and to help them better meet the needs of individual students suffering from their own private tragedies. When she compiled this anthology, Mears asked various authors to describe their personal experiences related to a traumatic circumstance and then to share what they thought was important for others to know. All educational leaders and educators will benefit from the lessons to be learned from the multiplicity of perspectives offered in this book, which includes factual accounts of individuals responding to traumatic events that affect students of all ages.
The book is divided into three sections. Section 1 provides the reader with the broad concepts related to trauma in schools, the physiological and psychological changes that occur as a result of trauma, and the very real and personal effects that catastrophic events have on teachers and students. Section 2 includes chapters by nine authors who relate their experiences and provide recommendations based on what they learned. Mears and others continually reiterate the importance of caring for and allowing students and school personnel to move through the process of recovery while the school returns to the normal routines of teaching and learning. In Section 3, after opening readers’ eyes to the various dimensions of trauma, Mears calls her readers to action by asking them to begin discussing their current ability to meet the special needs of students after trauma and to share with others what they learn.
Most educational policy and practice today places little value on relationship-building and allows insufficient time or space for school leaders and teachers to do the work of creating school climates that effectively discourage and prevent violence. Still, it remains the role and responsibility of teacher educators, educators and educational leaders to draw across disciplines and synthesize valuable information such as that in Mears’ book so that they are better equipped to help children whose lives are interrupted by traumatic events. Mears’ book is a gift to the educational community in that it offers practical ways to respond to tragedy that facilitate healing, promote community, and allow students and communities to live and learn together again, even after experiencing catastrophic events. The concepts in this book are so important and far-reaching that it should be required reading in both educational leadership and teacher education courses. Mears provides educational leaders with the information they need to act in the best interests of their staff and students when things unexpectedly go terribly wrong. The next step is to incorporate the lessons learned by those who have lived through traumatic events by implementing policies and practices that will reconnect students to their school community in the aftermath of tragedy.