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After months of denying their intention to do so, on the 24th February 2022 the Russian army invaded Ukraine. The world watched in horror as images more akin to 1940’s Europe dominated the news and collectively broke our hearts. Thousands of people fled the bombing, heading for boarders unsure of what to do, where to go, or how long this despotic disaster, that they were now embroiled in, would last.  

As a member of both the University of Edinburgh At-Risk Advisory Group and Emergency Humanitarian Response group I knew that the university would respond as a charitable organisation and reach out. Soon there would be applications from academics and students. Soon we would be on the education front line in helping those affected.  

The Refugee and Asylum Seeker At-Risk Advisory group was created before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For context, at Edinburgh we offer Widening Participation places to refugee and asylum seeking students (RAS).  We also offer pre-sessional and year round scholarships and support via English Language Education, Edinburgh Global and the Humanitarian Programme. We work closely with the Council for At Risk Academics (CARA) and the Humanitarian Development Programme supporting the linguacultural transitions of people seeking sanctuary and our staff engage with people who have experienced trauma all the time, though are not always necessarily aware of it.  

So on the 2^nd March 2022, I posted this message on the Staff CPD channel of Microsoft Teams:  

‘Hello ELE Staff, in light of recent dark events, and with awareness of the fact that numerous countries globally are experiencing the ravages of war, I thought these two articles might give some insights into how we can be supporting Forced Migrants in the ELT classroom. In 2021 the top five nationalities that sought asylum in the UK were Iranian, Eritrean, Albanian, Iraqi and Syrian (UNHRC), and we can now expect that students from the Ukraine may have experienced trauma too. Aleks Palanac at the University of Leicester works closely with the University of Sanctuary initiatives and I found these articles on Trauma Informed Pedagogy (TIP) in English language teaching insightful (Palanac, 2019: a & b), and hope you will too. The University of Edinburgh is a University of Sanctuary as well, and reflecting this in our classroom culture is a way that we can help’. 

This post prompted discussion and disclosures from staff about incidents when they had faced trauma impacted learners and did not know what to do.  

The Head of the Centre asked if I would run a centre wide CPD session on TIP in April leading to a deep dive into the theory and practice so as to disseminate the information to others. I met with colleagues in the School of Psychology and the Chaplaincy to seek advice, read extensively, and joined online training CPD sessions. I then delivered the session to academics and professional services staff.  

In sum, keeping the ethos of Sanctuary in mind, recent and past national conflicts, the Covid 19 pandemic, and the triggers for the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements have had traumatic effects on our communities. Trauma Informed Pedagogy (TIP), aims to inform our understanding of trauma, its prevalence in our student body, and how it can manifest as a barrier to learning and engagement. It then seeks to create supportive environments so as to help. The session briefly overviewed some of the concepts and practices of T.I.P with particular focus on Refugees and Asylum Seekers in classrooms. At times it broadened to consider any trauma that may have been experienced before providing opportunities to reflect and share insights into how we can support our students and each other, in the hope of creating a culture conducive to post traumatic growth. Practical research based insights and advice was given (Palanac, 2019; Scot Gov Trauma Informed Toolkit, 2022; Wheater, 2022).  

During this process I was very focused on the learners, but I learnt that a huge part of Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) and TIP is institutional support for staff (Trauma Informed Care, 2021). In addition to learning the ways that trauma can present in learners, I discovered more about how staff can hold trauma vicariously and that it is vital that we provide frameworks for staff to look after themselves and each other. This session was followed up with links to external training providers, and teachers working with Sanctuary learners now receive a TIP briefing session so they are familiar with colleagues in the community of practice and we also have periodic check in slots to assess how their work with At-Risk groups is going and where debriefing can take place if desired. Anecdotally, I knew of the importance of this due to holding the disclosed trauma of displaced Syrian academics. I knew it was becoming an issue when it popped up outside of work in a baby and toddler group conversation. We need networks of support in institutions and with our community of practice so we can carry on being there for those that need us.  

In addition to this, in June 2022 outreach training sessions were held with local charities working directly with people seeking refuge which was warmly received: ‘Just an enormous bouquet of thank yous. I think what you are doing is amazing and useful and MUCH NEEDED. It is definitely part of the solution and I say “Strength to your elbows”’ (Director of Friends of Scottish Settlers – FOSS). This work aligns with the University Action Plan and further training is planned for local Third Sector organisations. I also talked at the University of Sanctuary Conference in Jan 2023 to spread the word in the line with a Learn, Embed, Share ethos.  

References

Palanac, A. (2019 a) Renaissance of the Gatekeepers: Establishing a culture of welcome for refugees and asylum seekers at the University of Leicester’s English Language Teaching Unit. Language learning in higher education (Berlin, Germany). [Online] 9 (1), 117–125. 

Palanac, A. (2019 b). ‘Towards a trauma informed ELT pedagogy for refugees’. Language Issues, 30(2), pp. 3-14 

Trauma Informed Care (2021) Available at www.traumainformedcare.chcs.org. (Accessed on 30^th March 2022).  

Trauma-Informed Practice: A Toolkit for Scotland (2022) http://www.gov.scot/publications/trauma-informed-practice-toolkit-scotland/documents/ (Accessed on 30^th March 2022).  

Wheater, K. 2022. A trauma sensitive approach: A four step framework to taking a trauma sensitive approach to teaching in universities. www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/traumasensitive-approach-teaching-and-learning (Accessed on 21/12/2022).  

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   Thank you for sharing this.