Engaging with literacies of resistance

ABSTRACT

We explore discourses about social emotional learning (SEL) and trauma-informed practices (TIP) as school interventions in response to resistance from students and guardians. We analyze an illustrative example and one data source that casts light on the deficit impact of SEL and TIP discourses on both teacher/school practices and children and guardian experiences in navigating such discourses. Resistance is explored and ultimately defended in the context of the interventions being enacted upon the children/youth and as a literacy of survivance for children/youth with traumatized histories, along with the guardians who advocate for and shield them from such interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Behavior interventions
• mindfulness
• resistance
• SEL
• trauma
• TIP

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. PBIS and MTSS are frameworks containing three levels or tiers of intervention, ranging from global ‘support’ for all students to targeted interventions for small groups or individual students. PBIS and MTSS aim to coordinate and communicate about interventions across systems and roles, e.g. teachers, special education staff, social workers, counselors, and administrators (Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports 2023). Resistant behaviors out of the classroom norm would likely lead to targeted interventions under both models.

2. All names have been changed to protect the identities of the participants, including name and location of the school setting. Data taken from this study has undergone appropriate institutional review with ethical permission and informed consent.

3. Transcription conventions include: (1) direct quotes and brackets are used to show emotive language/responses and as clarifications; (2) Ellipses are used to show pauses in participant and interviewer dialogue and as forms of deletions of lengthy interview excerpts.

4. The questions are culled from research, trainings with over a 1000 educators/childcare advocates, and from Pyscher’s teacher education courses. We also highlight Van Manen’s work Pedagogical Tact: Knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do (Van Manen 2016), which, although not specific to CRTP, challenges educators to recognize children’s subjectivity especially during times of tension and duress, along with offering extensive strategies and philosophical perspectives that can be used as CRTPs.

5. For a curricular application of working with resistance as part of learning, see Crampton (2019).