Violence

Trauma

I came to see that to maintain silence about the extent of violence in society, or to understand these experiences solely in terms of pathology and ill-health, is insufficient. Medical approaches lead to a focus on the individual and to diagnosis of an ailment. We are expected to learn and teach as though we are not victims of violence, and to erase the experience of violence, in spite of the ongoing profound effect it has on shaping identity and meaning (Lewis, 1999). Although medical categories can reveal impacts of violence, they also conceal elements that don't fit the pattern of the syndrome, trap women in the need to "get over it" and get better, and divert attention from political and social questions about violence. This contradictory potential creates pitfalls for educators who, as they draw on medical conceptions that help them to recognize the impacts of trauma on learning, may become complicit in framing trauma as an individual health problem and obscure the need for change to the education system.

Seeing survivors of trauma as canaries in the mine, who offer a warning that the levels of violence in society are toxic to us all, reminds us that it is not victims who must return to “normal” but society that must change. It seems self-evident that it is a different experience, with much greater impact, to walk down a street and hear racist taunts, if you have previously been attacked and raped on that street than if you haven’t. Being told by your male teacher you can't do math because you are a girl obviously has a greater impact if you are also being sexually abused at home by your father who tells you that sex is all you are good for. Combined violence makes street, school, and home places of diminishment and danger and compounds the likelihood of school failure. Yet in the medical model prevalent in North America, heightened perception of "minor" violence by those who have experienced major violence tends to be judged as a symptom of pathology, rather than as an indicator of how each experience of violence increases fear, decreases a sense of safety, and adds a new layer of experience shaping the self and affecting attempts to learn in educational programs.

It is not helpful for educators to see students who have experienced violence as wounded or sick souls who need to go away and “heal.” Only if we value survivors, respect their/our ability to learn and teach and recognize the strength which made surviving trauma possible will survivors - whether learners or teachers – be able to honour experience of trauma and its impact on the self, rather than seeking to deny and hide it. (Horsman, 2006)

Horsman, J. (2006). Moving beyond stupid: Taking account of the impact of violence on women’s learning. International Journal of Educational Development. 26(2). Gender Equality in Adult Education (March), pp.177-188

Lewis, T. (1999). Living beside: Performing normal after incest memories return. Toronto: McGilligan Books.

Excerpt from: Horsman, J. (in press) Who will hear? Who will see? The Impact of Violence on Learning: A Historical Journey. Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme. Ending Woman Abuse, Vol. 25 No. 1.

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