Page 137 - Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century

It is well documented how the education system has been a space of dehumanisation, preventing true, creative and authentic learning from taking place. As Meyer and Wolhuter (2014) share, as a result of the policies of separate development under apartheid in
South Africa, race determined the kind of school one could, or could not, go to. This racialised segregation in education produced an education system that is fundamentally discriminatory, unfair, unequal and inequitable. In 2019, speaking at the launch of The Commune in Braamfontein in Johannesburg, academic and poet, Danai Mupotsa reflected on colonial education. Mupotsa (2019) shared that under colonial education, we have been taught in ways that are violent and promote hate. In her talk, Mupotsa (2019) challenged us to think about educating and teaching in ways that avert colonial education, through promoting love and freedom in the classroom.
As a black educator now, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to engage students and learners in trauma-informed ways that promote their (re)humanisation in the classroom setting. I believe true learning is a creative process requiring wondering and ‘daydreaming’ minds. As a leading researcher of shame and vulnerability in education, Brené Brown (2012: 187) writes: ‘we can’t learn when our heads are down and our mouths are shut’ because we are scared of being ridiculed, embarrassed and humiliated in the classroom.
In this paper, I argue for trauma-informed pedagogical practices in higher education. I
share from my engagements as an educator working with primarily black students coming from predominantly impoverished, low-income and ‘missing middle’1 backgrounds. I situate embodiment, student voices and experiences. Located in anthropology – a discipline that values ‘the individual story’ – I make use of vignettes from my own life and experiences
with students.2 My pedagogical practices and philosophies align with the University of Johannesburg Teaching and Learning Policy (2016), and contribute to areas not covered in current learning approaches, particularly those that relate to trauma-informed teaching practices. In taking trauma informed and (re)humanising approaches, ultimately as educators I show we promote justice, joy and excellence in learning.
Defining ‘trauma’: Dysregulated stress response systems
and weaving humanity into academic expertise
In the past years, particularly in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, throughout the world there has been an undeniable saturation of conversations about trauma and mental health. However, these conversations about trauma and mental health in the South African higher education system had already started prior to the pandemic and were especially highlighted in student protests over the years, particularly as they related to their exclusion in higher education based on finances and the anti-rape campus-wide protests (Qambela 2016). In these protests, students and outsourced workers raised issues of racialised, class-based
and gendered exclusions in higher education. Students and outsourced workers equally raised issues pertaining to trauma and the impact of being poor, black and from low-income backgrounds in higher education in South Africa.
Coleman (2022) tasks educators to engage with issues relating to mental health. This
is because while universities often have counselling centres, such as the Centre for Psychological Services and Career Development (PsyCaD) at the University of Johannesburg, the first point of contact for many students is often the educators and academics. In his Gauteng Anthropology talk, Kagiso Nko (2021) argued that in South Africa, mental health
1 The ‘missing middle’ are students who come from backgrounds where they do not qualify for government assistance through the national financial aid system, but are not wealthy enough to afford higher education fees.
2 Throughout the article, I have obfuscated some details to protect the identities and anonymity of the students.
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