In the face of significant trauma across PK-12 through adult learner populations, education has increasingly become a tool for significant societal change. Tools to reach these lofty goals have historically included strong instructional design approaches and, more recently, attention to social emotional learning (SEL) Bridging these methods to advance teaching and learning practices is urgently needed as schools and other institutions serve learners who are increasingly affected by trauma.

It is important to reflect on instructional design practices that are sensitive to learners with traumatic histories. There is not a clear consensus nor is there a body of literature for what it means to have a “trauma informed’ or ‘trauma sensitive’ approach to instructional design. This special issue of JAID begins to bridge the gap between the theories of social emotional learning/traumainformed learning with instructional design offering specific cases of design and development projects that illustrate the confluence of these two broad areas.

We share these articles with our ID community in the hopes of creating principles for “compassionate instructional design” (Thomas et al., 2019) This special issue is a collection of practitioner cases and research articles on applied instructional design practices that are responsive to trauma-affected learners. We hope to address questions such as: In what ways have instructional designers drawn upon the domains of SEL for supporting learners who have been affected by traumatic situations and environments? What are the effects of these practices on learning outcomes?

This special issue includes 7 articles, 1 interview and a conclusion. The first article, Lawless & Bogard, is an examination of the use of trauma-informed case-based instruction in a preservice teaching program at the University of Dayton. This contribution is a good beginning to thinking through adjustments that are vital to the instructional design process as we understand it post COVID.

This research looked specifically at the impacts of a special topics course focused on trauma-informed instructional practices among a teacher education summer study abroad group of learners. When controlling for the abroad experience, which can of course also impact preservice teachers’ perspectives in significant ways, the trauma- informed group of teachers had significant increases in resiliency measures. Because this was a case-based course, these findings are significant in pointing to specific ways that universities preparing teachers can approach the increased needs for traumainformed pedagogies among new teachers.

Online learners who were highlighted during the pandemic need significant support. Explicitly embedding social emotional academic learning (SEAL) training within online courses as part of the design process increases the likelihood of learner success. LaDuca’s conceptual paper proposes the use of “innovative and collaborative trauma-informed learning community” in order to overcome the existing burnout among faculty and staff in higher education.

LaDuca offers a Learning Community Planning Framework (LCPF) that supports resilience, and also attends to the sense of belonging highlighted by Herman & Gill. This conceptual framework accounts for many of the primary concerns for traumatized learners including reflection, collaboration, patience and the luxury of time. Turcotte, McElfresh, and Meehan extend the idea of questioning the cannons of sustainability and teaching by asking graduate students to share their understandings of ungrading. Couched within the understanding that we must attend to care for students and their well-being as part of a trauma-informed approach, LaDuca rightly recognizes the importance of leadership support for some of these practices which may be seen as less than sustainable over time.

Turcotte et al. finds that this is a potential tool for decreasing stress for all learners. Thomas approaches the question of how we address student and learner care in teacher preparation through a focus on community. Thomas challenges us as designers to use tools that move toward intentional attention to trauma-informed learning communities.

Plum, Plum, and Conceicao take up the very real barriers to implementation of SEL approaches and discuss a district-wide implementation via a case study in a K-12 district. The pandemic clearly has increased attention on trauma-informed pedagogy and this case looks at the realities of teachers’ experiences in the midst of the pandemic. According to Plum et al., teachers saw that students were isolated and teachers knew that they needed to do more to help with student care. In terms of specific tools, Cook-Sather and Nguyen point to Google Docs as a way to educate the whole person, affirm each learner, and address the negative impacts of the Pandemic.

This paper lays out the various ways that the tool is used and the impacts it had on a course focused on change in higher education. What is most compelling about this paper is the use of language like love, trust, life-affirming, care, affirmation, and grace. Seeing the tool interpreted in this powerful way is an exciting interpretation of what others may see as a “dry” or ubiquitous piece of technology that has been recast in a powerful way.

Among some of the lessons from the text, we found the connection between trauma and equity, re-examining assumptions, student voice and the pre-eminence of relationship. The final piece of the trauma-informed ID puzzle is a new model that will inform instructional designers who are dealing with traumatized learners specifically. While there are already a good number of ID models, many would argue we do not need new ones. The twin pandemics of COVID and racism have had deep and lasting impacts. We were honored to be able to spend some time plumbing the depths of their work.

Drawing from all of the work submitted to the special issue as well as our understandings of the needs of both instructional design models and trauma-informed pedagogy, the model focuses on the importance of a number of issues. These include love, care, relationship.