11.4: Articles and Essays

Bensimon, E. M. (2018, October 16). Reclaiming Racial Justice in Equity, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 50(3-4), 95-98.

Reclaiming Racial Justice in Equity. Estela Mara Bensimon is Dean's Professor in Educational Equity and Founding Director of the Center for Urban Education. In 2017, she was elected to the National Academy of Education and presented with the 2017 Social Justice in Education Award by the American Education Research Association (AERA); she is the 2018 AERA Division J Research Award recipient. Her opinion pieces have been published in Inside Higher Education, Denver Post, Sacramento Bee, and Zocalo. In January 2018, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Dr. Bensimon to the Education Commission of the States.

Cadet, D. (2020, May 28). Your Black Colleagues May Look Like They’re Okay — Chances Are They’re Not. Refinery 29.

Let’s cut to the chase. It’s been a tough few days...weeks...months. For many people, working in the midst of a global pandemic has been difficult. For those of us fortunate enough to continue doing our jobs safely at home, we've had to somehow make ourselves look presentable for nonstop digital meetings, and had to learn how to be productive as the lines between our personal and professional lives continue to blur. We’ve run out of shows to stream, Instagram lives to watch, things to bake. We’re confused and scared, and we don’t know when any of this will be over. But there’s a tale of two quarantines. Because while some Americans have been consumed by banana bread, others have had to navigate surviving a pandemic in a country they were never actually meant to live in.

Dillard, C. (2019, Fall). Black Minds Matter. Learning for Justice, 63.

Interrupting school practices that disregard the mental health of Black youth.

Duane, A., et al. (2021) Beyond deep breathing: A new vision for equitable, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed mindfulness practice. Middle School Journal, 52(3), 4-14.

To access the full article, contact the library using the widget at the top left of this page, or complete the this online form: https://tinyurl.com/ytmvvrfy As the research on mindfulness expands to include school-based interventions, middle school educators across the country have implemented mindfulness in the classroom. However, similar to other social-emotional learning approaches, when implemented in the absence of cultural context and trauma-informed care, mindfulness can be weaponized. In this paper we describe how educators can facilitate mindfulness practice in the classroom in affirming, culturally responsive and trauma-informed ways. In doing so, we propose a new vision for how mindfulness can further equity work in schools.

Frye, D. (Reviewer). (2019, November 15). Radical Self-Care in the Face of Mounting Racial Stress. Psychology Today.

Cultivating hope through acts of affirmation. 5 Ways to Practice Radical Self-Care.

Ginwright, S. (2018, May 31). The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement. Medium.

Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement

Gorski, P. (2020). How Trauma-Informed Are We, Really? To fully support students, schools must attend to the trauma that occurs within their own institutional cultures. Educational Leadership, 78(2), 14–19.

The author offers insights on trauma-informed education and the initiatives that educators and schools may consider for the benefit of students suffering from trauma. Topics discussed include the need to acknowledge the significant factors that contribute to student trauma, the identification of institutional culture and school policies that tend to produce traumatizing patterns, and the way educators may respond with concern to student trauma.

Johnson, M. M. (2020). Self-Care: The Antidote to Compassion Fatigue. Educational Leadership, 78(2), 46–51.

The article discusses how self-care may help prevent compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress (STS) among education leaders. Topics explored include the symptoms of compassion fatigue which range from sleep problems to depression, the categories of self-care such as emotional, cognitive, and spiritual, and the need to practice self-awareness and self-management to effectively navigate stress.

Joseph, J. (2022, February 16). Healing Generational Trauma. Yes! Magazine.

For Black and Indigenous communities, it takes more than therapy and medicine to tackle mental illness. We need a holistic approach.

Minahan, J. (2020). Maintaining Relationships, Reducing Anxiety: During Remote Learning. Educational Leadership, 78(2), 20–27.

The article discusses the support and assistance that teachers may extend to address student anxiety during the implementation of remote learning programs in the midst of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Topics explored include the level of anxiety in students due to the disruption caused by the pandemic, the importance of maintaining healthy connection and communication between students and teachers, and the way teachers may validate the emotions of their students.

Simmons, D. (2020). Confronting Inequity / The Trauma We Don’t See. Educational Leadership, 77(8), 88–89.

The article offers information on the trauma of inequality in the high-achieving Black students. Topics include unsafe neighborhood terrorized by violence of poverty & racist policies; effect of typical mental health sequelae of exposure to violence and adverse childhood events such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and behavior problems; and trauma changes the biomarkers and brain structure in young people, results in violent behavior, suicidal tendencies & drug abuse.

Simmons, D. (2020). Healing Black Students’ Pain: If schools aren’t addressing racism, they aren’t fully addressing trauma. Educational Leadership, 78(2), 80–81.

The author discusses the need for schools and educators to acknowledge the racism-related trauma of African American students. Topics explored include the level of anxiety which may be attributed to the increasing racist incidents affecting the African American community in the U.S., the mental and physical health impact of racism-related stress, and the need for educators to demonstrate commitment to racial justice to effectively teach students how to mitigate racial trauma.

Wakeel, F., & Njoku, A. (2021). Application of the Weathering Framework: Intersection of Racism, Stigma, and COVID-19 as a Stressful Life Event among African Americans. Healthcare, 9(2), 145.

The disproportionate impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on African American communities necessitates an increased focus on the intersectional roles of racism, stigma, and other social determinants of health in influencing disease and mortality risk. The Weathering Framework is applied to demonstrate the dynamic interrelationships between these factors and to conceptualize COVID-19 as a stressful life event that will have profound health implications over the life course for African Americans. Recommendations for population health research, interventions and policies aimed at reducing COVID-19 incidence and mortality, and mitigation of the long-term impacts of the pandemic on communities of color are discussed. Keywords: health disparities; COVID-19/coronavirus; stigma; race/ethnicity; social determinants of health; Blacks/African Americans; racism; systemic racism

Wilson, A., & Richardson, W. (2020). All I Want to Say Is That They Don’t Really Care About Us: Creating and Maintaining Healing-Centered Collective Care in Hostile Times. Occasional Paper Series, (43).

Too often educators (care-givers) are left to navigate toxic work environments without proper support to combat the systemic issues they face daily. Institutions of higher education have neglected to make the health and well-being of care-givers a priority. This failure continues to maintain and perpetuate the oppressive conditions that mirror trauma, pain and stress. The authors of this study extend Ginwright’s (2018) healing centered engagement to conceptualize what they call healing centered collective care—a fugitive framework of care for the care-givers. Data was collected through two case studies and those generative themes are presented using testimonios from the authors.