Teaching Beyond the Curriculum
Abstract
The helping profession require a tertiary curriculum that encompasses sensitive and traumatic content. Research recommendsthat higher education educators approach the exposure and delivery of sensitive material with purpose and caution, stronglyconsidering the potential impact on students (Miller, 2001; Cless & Goff, 2017). Kennedy and Scriver (2016) believe anyreasonably-sized class of helping professionals students today will likely contain individuals who have had direct or indirectexperiences of personal trauma. Equally, decades of research have highlighted the prevalence of trauma narratives of thosechoosing to enter the helping professions such as counselling, social work, and psychology. The COVID-19 Pandemic furthercompounded the complexity of the student experience and exposed the need for universities to develop trauma-informedapproaches to support students’ well-being during times of crisis. Educators have a social responsibility to account for and activelyaddress adversity and traumatisation within their learning environment. This paper analyses the role of critical reflection in developing resilience and managing traumatisation, in students engaging withchallenging, sensitive or triggering content, within courses devoted to child maltreatment for human services, psychology, socialwork, criminology, and education programs. It draws on considerations for ‘trigger warnings’ and trauma-informed pedagogy,before applying that knowledge to the learning and teaching of helping professions. This article aids in developing ourunderstanding of how critical reflection, as part of a broader trauma informed approach, can effectively support students reading awide range of ‘triggering’ texts, as well as navigating their own adversities to promote academic success, retention andprogression.
Dr India Bryce is a Senior Lecturer in Counselling at University of Southern Queensland and a Forensic Social Worker. Indiabegan her career as early childhood educator and Counsellor, before taking a position as a front-line Child Safety Officer in theInvestigation and Assessment Team, in the then Queensland Department of Child Safety, Women and Youth. She is also aspecialist consultant in the field of child maltreatment, specializing in cumulative harm. India’s current research explorescumulative harm, trauma informed pedagogy in higher education, trauma narratives and health.
Jessica Gildersleeve is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Southern Queensland. Her researchconsiders the intersections of ethics, affect, narrative, and culture, and her recent books include Christos Tsiolkas: The UtopianVision (Cambria 2017) and The Routledge Companion to Australian Literature (Routledge 2021).
Kate Cantrell is a Lecturer inWriting, Editing, and Publishing at the University of Southern Queensland. Her research interests include contemporary accountsof wandering and narrative representations of illness, immobility, and displacement. Her short stories, poems, and essays appearin several magazines and journals, including Overland, Meanjin, Westerly, Queensland Review, Hecate, and others.