Educational Trauma: Examples from Testing to the School-To-Prison Pipeline

This book deconstructs and analyzes the impact of education-based trauma. Drawing on wisdom from the fields of education, psychology, neuroscience, history, political science, social justice, and philosophy, Gray connects the dots across different forms of education trauma that can occur throughout a student’s life: from bullying and anxiety to social inequity and the school-to-prison pipeline. With respect to learning, memory, social group dynamics, democracy, and mental health, this book serves as a call-to-arms, demanding civil rights for all students and for education to fulfill its ultimate duty as a force for the common good. Lee-Anne Gray is a psychologist, educator, author, and national speaker. In her private practice, she served as a forensic and clinical consulting psychologist to public defenders, families, students, and school districts throughout the state of California. Gray was also a TEDx organizer. Formerly an instructor of Psychology of Gender in the Departments of Psychology/Women’s Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA, Gray founded The Connect Group in 2011, and continues to serve the global educational community with innovative professional development seminars in self-compassion, LGBTQ+ youth, Design Thinking, EmpathicEducation, as well as with transformational coaching. 1. Introduction 2. Educational Trauma 3. The State of Educational Affairs 4. Trauma, Learning, and Memory 5. The Effects of Trauma on Learning 6. How poisonous is the pedagogy? 7. Social Ecology: How Poisonous Pedagogy Sickens Students and Society 8. PLAY 9. Sexual and Gender/Puberty/Health Education 10. Homework: Trauma for Students, Parents, Families, Teachers, and communities 11. Standardized testin 12. Value Added Models and Other Forms of Teacher Abuse 13. Special and gifted education 14. Bullying 15. Corporal Punishment in School 16. Higher Education: Where Educational Trauma begins and is perpetuated 17. Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and chemical restraints 18. The School-to-Prison Pipeline 19. Strategies for Mitigating Educational Trauma 20. Conclusion