Chapter 7: The Trauma-Sensitive Urban Educator Model: An Interdisciplinary Framework for Preservice Urban Educators

Students in urban education classrooms are vulnerable to contextual stressors that influence their experience of urban schooling practices. In like manner, the influence of contextual stress is twofold in that urban schools are likewise impacted by students’ lived experiences in and out of the school setting. Of these contextual experiences, trauma as it affects urban youth stands paramount. Teachers, as primary points of contact for students, sit at the nexus of a student’s school experience. Given the contextual stressors often associated with urban youth (e.g. under-resourced communities, parental unemployment, community violence), the influence of teachers on the urban school experience is much more critical—particularly in the context of traumatic stress. This suggests that vulnerable youth fare much better when having a responsible, caring, and consistent adult to act as a buffer (Caruth, 1996;,Dutro & Bien, 2014;,Jaycox et al., 2010;,Quiros & Berger, 2015;,Walkley & Cox, 2013). Yet, many urban schools lack the resources and personnel adequately trained to recognize and care for students who are also survivors of childhood trauma (Martin et al., 2017). In this chapter, we posit that urban-focused, trauma-sensitive training within pre-service teacher education curricula is critical to the development of effective pedagogical practice among educators who aspire to teach in urban school settings. The chapter begins with a brief review of the literature on trauma in the contexts of a) teacher education, b) trauma-sensitive and trauma-informed school settings, and c) professional school counseling and social work. Using an intersectional framework, we will provide a rationale for the development of a collaborative model to prepare pre-service urban educators. This model, the Trauma-Sensitive Urban Educator (T-SUE), applies to urban youth of Color with specific emphasis on Black youth. After an overview of the T-SUE model is presented, discussion of the model will follow and conclude the chapter.