Trauma is prevalent in the lives of many but can be more observable in populations, cultures and spaces where the marginalised gather for support. This edited collection explores shifting understandings of trauma and how it can impact the learning environment, inviting educators to consider the implications for the way they hold their own classrooms, their students and themselves.

This collection provides space for autoethnographic reflections on trauma in the classroom, qualitative and quantitative accounts of trauma in non-traditional educational settings, as well as strategies for supporting students and practitioners working in these areas. Each chapter will offer expert insights into how trauma manifests and interacts in different educational settings among different student cohorts including culturally and linguistically diverse, low socioeconomic background and incarcerated students. The collection casts light on how trauma intersects in the lives of non-traditional students and the lives of educators and practitioners. It aims to increase educators’ trauma awareness, to promote discussions on the holistic needs of students and educators and to articulate a trauma pedagogy with practical applications for non-traditional educational spaces. Moving beyond the experience of the learner, this book explores the practitioner’s lived histories, their wellbeing, the emotional labour of the job and how to maintain equilibrium for all participants in the learning context.

An essential read for researchers and practitioners in the field of education, this book will also be of interest to mainstream teachers, tertiary educators, enabling educators and alternative educators.

Anita Maclaurin is an AAUT award-winning enabling educator and a trained High School Teacher and Creative Arts Therapist. She has been a Lecturer for University Preparation Pathways at Murdoch University, Australia, since 2013. Currently, she is the Programme Coordinator of FlexiTrack High. Previously, an International Baccalaureate teacher, a Curriculum Coordinator, and a Teaching and Learning coach, her teaching and learning approaches are underpinned by social justice and constructivist theory, educational psychology and creative pedagogical processes. Her research focus is on authentic and engaging enabling programmes, holistic curriculum design, trauma-informed pedagogies and the emotional labour demands on enabling educators.

Dr Angela Jones is a Senior Lecturer in Access and Equity and course coordinator of UniPrep programmes at Edith Cowan University, WA, Australia. She is a two-time AAUT award winner, including a 2023 citation for outstanding contribution to Student Learning for co-designing the FlexiTrack in-school enabling programme, and a 2024 award winner for programmes that enhance learning for UniPrep. She co-edited Transitioning Students into Higher Education: Philosophy, Pedagogy and Practice (2019), which focused “on the relationship between philosophy, pedagogy and practice when designing programmes, units or courses for transitioning students to new educational spaces in the university environment.” Angela is a passionate enabling educator and advocate for social justice education and the career development of academics in this space.