12 Understanding Student Behaviors and Using Trauma-Informed Practices

Trauma is common in prison. Adverse childhood experiences, traumatic brain injury, serious psychological distress, and mental illness are prevalent among our students. In addition, the prison environment itself can sometimes be traumatic and detrimental to students’ physical and mental health. Students might find themselves having to adhere to a prison code or a standoffish attitude to protect themselves in the prison environment. They might face violence, humiliation, exploitation, and other traumatic events during their imprisonment. Those with mental illness might not be diagnosed and, thus, not receiving treatments. Some might also have very limited contacts with their families outside the prison.

Research has also shown that those who experienced segregated housing (i.e., solitary confinement) for more than a few weeks can experience irreversible brain damage. This experience can cause social pathologies, including losing self-control, losing sense of self, social withdrawal, anxiety, and uncontrollable anger. These psychological impairments can continue even after the release of the individual from prison and their reintroduction into the social environment.^{[1] [2]}

Effects of trauma might manifest themselves in students’ demeanor in the classroom, in the form of lack of cognitive and inhibitory control. It is important to recognize that students might react to environmental cues and stimulants in ways that they themselves don’t understand. These reactions might look like hostility, aggressiveness, shutting down, or an over-exaggerated response in the eyes of instructors. It is highly recommended that instructors and tutors educate themselves about trauma-informed education practices. See ‘Part IV: Additional Resources’ for more.

We find creative ways to encourage our students who have trouble speaking in the classroom and bonding with their classmates. For instance, OBB instructor Kevin Mullen, once adjusted an oral storytelling assignment by allowing students to tell their stories only to the student’s tutor (instead of the entire class). Students rely on instructors and tutors to understand their conditions and provide accommodations. DOC education staff are often able to provide valuable insights regarding students, including their education history.

Mr. G was unhappy student at the beginning of English 100, as he never thought of himself as a writer and did not feel like the class could be meaningful for him. In his previous experience, Mr. G only wrote ‘because he had to,’ as there was no other way to communicate with his family otherwise. In the first week of class, Tutor P listened to Mr. G’s concerns and asked him what he wrote about in his letters to family and friends. Mr. G said that he advised his younger relatives outside to work hard, to not be complacent, and to not get into trouble, because he himself had lost freedom and opportunities to thrive. Tutor P commented that Mr. G was writing to encourage, to share his life experience, and hopefully to inspire others whom he loves. Mr. G acknowledged this perspective, and this reframing helped to shift his mindset about his identity as a writer. He became very committed to the class and went on to write wonderful stories and poems.

We find most of our students, even with their traumatic experiences, to be very engaged, articulate, honest, and curious. They are capable of meeting high academic standards and demand to be held to them. In fact, many students have expressed appreciation of how this class has supported them through a time when they were mentally and psychologically in despair. Others have expressed how OBB classes have allowed for vulnerability as a channel for creating community among fellow classmates, and this increased their self-confidence and self-worth. See this OBB webpage and news to understand our impact from students’ perspectives.

What is Trauma?

1. SAMHSA (the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) describes individual trauma as an event or circumstance resulting in:
   1. physical harm
   2. emotional harm
   3. and/or life-threatening harm
2. The event or circumstance has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s:
   1. mental health
   2. physical health
   3. emotional health
   4. social well-being
   5. and/or spiritual well-being

Recognizing Trauma in Our Students

Many of our students come into the prisons having suffered traumas, whether abuse, interpersonal violence, community violence, or poverty. The prison system itself is a source of trauma with systems of punishment, like segregation, that can easily induce mental, emotional, and spiritual harm.

Teaching within this system calls for greater awareness of our students’ mental health and understanding when students have dramatic reactions to specific situations. When we often think of “difficult” students we have worked with, we have often found out later that there were definite reasons for their behaviors.

Student Behaviors That May Point to Trauma

• Absence from class or tutoring
• Shutting down, refusing to work or interact
• Not knowing how to interact with authority figures or with people in general
• Difficulty speaking up
• Indicating disinterest in everything
• Leaving the room or indicating a need to have space
• Being overly aggressive or argumentative in discussions
• Needing to be heard at the expense of others in the room
• Lashing out at others
• Demanding/needing attention

Trauma-Informed Practices

You may want to consider these specific practices (adapted from the Inside-Out Instructor Pedagogy Guide) to accommodate all students in your classes or tutoring sessions:

1. Cultivate safe space. Let students decide where to sit and prevent crowding. This also includes allowing students to physically remove themselves from a space when they are feeling overcome.
2. Provide opportunities for consent. While you want to encourage students to participate in order to bring all voices to the table, it’s best to make clear that students have the ability to say “no” or pass.
3. Use inviting language. For some students, saying “no” may be hard. Try to use language that invites, rather than demands, participation.
4. Slow down pacing, if needed. Simply slowing down and taking a breath can help a specific student–and sometimes the class as a whole–take in difficult or emotional material.
5. Be flexible and adaptive. Be ready with alternative approaches and lessons and implement preparation and debriefing sessions to open and close specific activities and their takeaways.

There is an abundance of literature on trauma-informed pedagogy for children, students with low socio-economic status, first generation students and the prison population.

It is important to distinguish past trauma from learning disability.  If you encounter a student who might have a learning disability, contact the OBB program manager. In certain circumstances, we might be able to receive advice or other help from UW–Madison’s McBurney Disability Resource Center.