Chapter 5: Dismantling Ability Grouping to Promote Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Practices in Early Childhood Classrooms

One challenge facing early childhood centers across the United States is how to balance the growing academic needs and focus with the paradigm shift of approaching students through a trauma-informed lens that focuses on the humanity and assets of each student. One framework for approaching this balance is Shevrin Venet’s (2021) approach to equity-centered trauma-informed education. This framework pushes traditional trauma-informed approaches of strategies and checklists for trauma-informed practices further to promote equity. Rather than a list of strategies or a checklist, equity-centered trauma-informed practices approach this work through a holistic, systems-oriented lens that focuses on social justice and anti oppression at its core. Two components of Shevrin Venet’s framework for equity-centered trauma-informed practices are that they are asset-based and human-centered. This chapter will explore both of those components in one early childhood classroom in the Midwest.