ABSTRACT
Teaching and learning during disasters presents challenges and opportunities. The COVID-19 pandemic and concomitant social and economic devastation altered almost every aspect of daily life. Subsequent police brutality, racial injustice, and environmental disasters disproportionately affected historically marginalized communities. Within this context, we, as faculty teaching in a graduate clinical social work program with a specialization in trauma, critically appraised and adapted our teaching to a synchronous online format. We integrated critical elements of trauma-informed and culturally responsive teaching in the development of a pedagogical model. In this article, we present a Trauma Informed and Culturally Responsive pedagogy, and describe relevant teaching principles, concepts, and strategies. We offer lessons learned and provide recommendations for social work education.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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Notes on contributors
Dee Sherwood
Dee Sherwood, PhD, MSW, MPA, is Grand Rapids Regional Site Program Director at Western Michigan University. Karen VanDeusen, PsyD, LP, LMSW, ACSW, is Professor and Trauma Program Director at Western Michigan University. Bridget Weller, PhD, is Associate Professor at Western Michigan University. Jessica Gladden, PhD, LMSW, is Assistant Professor at Western Michigan University.