How SoTL can Inform Teaching Traumatic Histories

Abstract

Educators charged with teaching histories marked by oppression and violence navigate a challenging duality: they must foster critical engagement and deep analysis of traumatic events without causing secondary trauma to their students, all within the context of growing political pressures on history curriculum in K-12 and higher education. This article, based on the results of a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) study in a college-level war and society course, explores student-identified challenges to learning about the Holocaust as well as their strategies for navigating emotional distress associated with that learning process. The article also considers SoTL-informed pedagogical interventions for teaching hard histories with a trauma-informed approach sharing student reactions to an oral history podcast assignment for supporting thoughtful and effective communication about sensitive topics. Among other results, this study found that students approached learning about the Holocaust with varied and self-aware strategies for emotional regulation, despite the common expectation that it would be difficult to hear about the tragic experiences of others. Students also expressed both general and specific benefits to learning this content, despite the significant challenge of navigating sensitive topics with careful language.