10th Blog

 Shawn Ginwright's Views on Healing Centered Engagement

    Shawn Ginwright's article on the transitioning from trauma informed care to healing centered engagement is an interesting and valuable conversation to be had. Trauma informed care looks at the dealings of past trauma with a medical/scientific lens on the person. However, there is an argument for a more positive and spiritually cleansing way of going about dealing with trauma, and that way is healing centered engagement. HCE is a more personal, emotional, and spiritual way of healing from trauma that does not use medical ways of curing trauma.

Quote #1: "Communities, and individuals who experience trauma are agents in restoring their own well-being. This subtle shift suggests that healing from trauma is found in an awareness and actions that address the conditions that created the trauma in the first place"(Ginwright). 

    The quote above discusses how HCE is a community healing process by bringing in others who have experienced trauma to help those who need another voice. There is much more awareness of what is going on and more awareness of themselves. They also go at trying to better the conditions that caused their trauma by participating in political/cultural action.

Quote #2:  "Healing centered engagement uses culture as a way to ground young people in a solid sense of meaning, self-perception, and purpose. This process highlights the intersectional nature of identity and highlights the ways in which culture offers a shared experience, community and sense of belonging. Healing is experienced collectively, and is shaped by shared identity such as race, gender, or sexual orientation. Healing centered engagement is the result of building a healthy identity, and a sense of belonging"(Ginwright).

    Ginwright describes how finding oneself after trauma through HCE has a lot to due with the identity of the person. They need to find themselves after the trauma, and through that they can find belonging with themselves and their environment. It's a spiritual process of forgiveness and finding a new individual after the trauma.

Quote #3: "While it is important to acknowledge trauma and its influence on young people’s mental health, healing centered strategies move one step beyond by focusing on what we want to achieve, rather than merely treating emotional and behavioral symptoms of trauma. This is a salutogenic approach focusing on how to foster and sustain well-being. Based in positive psychology, healing centered engagement is based in collective strengths and possibility which offers a departure from conventional psychopathology which focuses on clinical treatment of illness"(Ginwright).

    Ginwright here discusses how HCE looks forward at what the person wants to become rather than having a sole purpose of fixing the problem. There are multiple things that HCE wants to accomplish in order to move forward with the painful experience rather than just trying to fix it or get rid of it. 

    At the end of the day, a person should be able to decide what type of treatment is best for them. However, HCE is a very promising and different approach compared to the typical treatment for trauma. It tackles the trauma at multiple angles and has shown to allow people to move forward rather than try to fix a problem that may not get fixed.

Hyperlink: Healing-Centered Engagement – Transforming Education in the Pandemic and Beyond - IDRA

9th Blog

 Three Most Important Things

Key Assessment: 

    When it comes to important things that I have done this semester, the Key Assessment is up there. The ability of using personal experience as well as accurate data from RI to further enhance my knowledge on all school systems in the state is very important to my quest to become a teacher. Adding personal experiences to these information-based assignments allows me to add even more information to either prove or deny data/accusations that may have been said.

Literacy with an Attitude Class Discussion:

    One of my favorite moments in class was when we experienced Patrick Finn's ideas come to light. The lesson on how we were treated in school systems being brought to light was eye opening to everyone in the room. It made us realize that there are better ways to teach and develop young minds.

Five Tricks Card Game:

    This game opened the eyes of a lot of people in class. A card game that each person was given different rules and weren't allowed to speak was definitely a confusing and interesting social experiment. It showed us that in life people start off in different ways and end up in different ways.

8th Blog

 RI Policies and Woke Read Alouds

    The RI Policies and the video are informative on how as a society, there have been movements on creating a more accepting place for everyone. While the laws show a more specific and more serious way of presenting this information, the video uses a children's book to explain the situation to a targeted younger audience. The laws also go in depth on the protection of students and children, which makes a big deal in the development of the children when they are ready to move up in the world.

    When it comes to the acceptance and equality of everyone in a classroom environment and out in the world, I am 100% for it. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and kindness. I personally have a limited experience with the information presented based on the people I grew up around: I grew up in a rural, white town with rural white students. The idea of students that are transgender or have a different sexuality was not common where I went to high school, but it does not matter because at the end of the day we are all human. People can and deserve to decide how they want to present and think of themselves, and people should always support that. However, I am a strong believer that the student should figure things out themselves. Of course there should be guidance with important figures, but the big shots need to be made by the student themselves because it is their life that is being effected. I do not believe that there should be a push to actively need these kinds of students in the classroom just to be socially viewed as "accepting". It should be a student's decision on their own, and teachers and school systems should only present the acceptance and awareness to the students for them to figure out on their own.

Hyperlink: Teachers play a key role in helping students feel they 'belong' at school (theconversation.com)