Name
Trauma-Informed and Inclusive Pedagogy (TIIP): A Study of the Creation of a Pre-Service Teacher Education Curriculum
Date & Time
Tuesday, July 28, 2026, 10:50 AM - 11:20 AM
Description
Teachers report high workplace stress and deteriorated mental health when they are ill-prepared to accommodate students exhibiting behaviors typical of those with disabilities and/or trauma (Bauman-Field, 2023; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009). Such teachers often fail to de-escalate behaviors or co-regulate with students (Price, 2022). Over time this inability to respond appropriately can lead to teacher burnout or secondary traumatic stress (Smith, 2022), and students may experience compounding disruptions to their learning and/or re-traumatization (Jennings, 2019). Although some pre-service curriculums prepare teachers to work with students with disabilities with instruction on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (Meyer, et al, 2025) few also incorporate trauma-informed pedagogy (TIP) to support learners with trauma or disabilities and trauma; therefore, there is a need to expand upon the curriculum to prepare teachers to effectively work with such students and maintain classroom environments that support wellbeing for students and teachers alike. In this presentation, we share the results of a three-year long action research project where we innovated the undergraduate and graduate licensure curriculum at our university. Drawing from the principals of UDL, disability studies, and trauma-informed pedagogy, we sought to create a curriculum to better prepare music teachers to recognize and identify behaviors in the classroom and respond to them with support rather than a need for punitive forms of discipline (Churchill & Bernard, 2020; Conor & Gabel, 2022). Data include focus group interviews with our colleagues, cyclical and reflexive planning sessions by the two co-researchers that occurred at the beginning and end of each term, and student feedback. Culp and Salvador (2021) suggested that program-wide, purposeful, prolonged experiences with content and coursework in inclusive practices may best prepare preservice educators to meet the needs of all learners (p. 62). Additionally, incorporating diversity education and inclusion throughout a preservice music education program may help educators to recognize bias and incorporate knowledge for inclusive practices (Laes & Westerlund, 2017). Therefore, we created a spiral curriculum that weaves through the pre-service course sequence providing relevant content by context and age level. We provide an overview of the curriculum and examples of key activities to demonstrate the ways the sequence deepens over time. We also share cautions and suggestions to prevent or mitigate trauma-triggering of pre-service students given the challenging nature of such course content. We present a model for integrating a trauma-informed inclusive curriculum into a preservice music educator program without adding additional courses to the degree.
Location Name
512D
Full Address
Palais des Congres - Montréal Convention Centre
1001, Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle
Montreal QC H2Z 1H2
Canada
Session Type
Paper Presentation
Presenting Author(s)
Jacqueline Smith