Designing for Trauma-Informed Practices: Professional Development for School Founders
Hodges Johnson, Kristle
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2021-04-27
Abstract
The Freedom Fellows Institute recruits and trains school leaders of color to found their own charter schools in marginalized communities. This quality improvement project sought to help the executive director of Freedom Fellows Institute (FFI) determine how to design the trauma-informed learning that fellows experience in year one of the institute which informs how fellows design their schools. Two theoretical frameworks were combined to shape this study: Laura Desimone’s Core Conceptual Framework for Studying Professional Development and The Flexible Framework for Trauma Sensitive Schools. By collecting and analyzing professional development artifacts and charter school applications, as well as conducting stakeholder and fellow surveys and interviews, four concrete findings emerged: FFI leads in a trauma-sensitive way, offers flexibility and choice in the Trauma-informed practices (TIP) training, contributed more to the clarity of fellows’ school designs, not the content for Trauma Informed Practices, and does not have a shared definition for TIP. Based on the findings, three recommendations were offered to FFI: 1. Keep modeling trauma-informed practices throughout FFI trainings. 2. Collect data from fellows throughout year one to assess their understanding of TIP as new learning occurs. 3. Make the TIP learning more concrete by utilizing trauma experts who are more knowledgeable about TIP.