Whitewashing trauma: applying neoliberalism, governmentality, and whiteness theory to trauma training for teachers

ABSTRACT

Discussions about trauma-informed schools have rapidly increased in North America, yet there is a dearth of literature on the role of the teacher in these interventions. Studies largely fail to address the needs of racialized and lower SES students who are disproportionately more likely to experience single event and chronic trauma events, but are regularly punished or ignored by the school system. This article suggests the existing literature gaps are symptomatic of the forces of whiteness, neoliberalism and governmentality on teachers and schools. This article examines how these forces determine: how trauma is defined, the construction of the competent teacher, the surveillance of the home through teacher mandated reporting, the impact of ‘no excuses’ pedagogy and zero tolerance discipline practices, and the problematic impact of ‘resilience’ and ‘grit’ talk. The article ends with implications for further research, training, and practices that might better support students who have experienced trauma .

KEYWORDS:

• Neoliberalism
• whiteness
• governmentality
• trauma-informed schools
• grit

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Dr. Shoshana Pollack for her feedback on an early draft of this work, and to the reviewers for their helpful edits and detailed comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.