trauma-informed-pedagogy
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- PaperELT Journal11 Apr 2026
Trauma and language learning: ELT classroom practices in Sri Lanka
Suresh Canagarajah, Canista Arthie Hensman
Contrasting with Global North approaches that pathologize individual trauma, Sri Lankan ELT classrooms treat collective trauma as a form of neurodiversity, leveraging community-based relational practices. Teachers co-construct meaning with students using diverse semiotic resources, fostering resilience and dependency as strengths. The article examines intuitive pedagogical strategies adopted by educators in Northern Sri Lanka after the civil war.
Original abstract
Scholarship in the Global North has traditionally treated trauma as an individual pathological condition that needs medical intervention. However, Global South communities such as Sri Lanka approach trauma differently. Since the whole community has lived through centuries of colonization and decades of civil war, trauma is collective. For this reason, the community has developed everyday practices for a supportive environment. Such community-sponsored cultural and relational practices do not pathologize trauma. Survivors are treated as exhibiting forms of neurodiversity that come with their own strengths such as resilience, patience, and dependency. Their communication is not treated as fragmented and incoherent, but as meaningful when others co-construct meanings with them, adopting diversified semiotic resources, and going beyond normative assumptions. English language teachers have adopted pedagogical strategies influenced by such relational orientations. This article will discuss the intuitive strategies Northern Sri Lankan educators and students have adopted since the civil war.
- PaperELT Journal14 Feb 2026
Reframing teachers’ role in post-conflict and crisis-affected contexts
Daniel Xerri, Luis Javier Pentón Herrera
This introduction to a special issue examines the roles, identities, and practices of ELT professionals in post-conflict and crisis-affected contexts, showing how teachers act as multidimensional agents combining language instruction with trauma-sensitive care and peacebuilding. It argues for a shift from relying on individual teacher resilience towards systemic support, policy reform, and professional development.
Original abstract
This introduction to the special issue on teachers in post-conflict and crisis-affected contexts examines the roles, identities, and pedagogical practices of ELT professionals working in environments where instability, displacement, and violence profoundly reshape educational realities. Moving beyond policy-centred accounts, it foregrounds teachers’ lived experiences, highlighting how ELT practitioners function as multidimensional agents who combine language instruction with trauma-sensitive care, peacebuilding, and community stabilisation. The article conceptualises teacher identity and well-being as ecological and relational, shaped by systemic precarity, emotional labour, and limited institutional support. It further illustrates how context-responsive and politically charged pedagogies transform ELT classrooms into spaces of psychological safety, critical dialogue, and collective coping. The article argues for a shift away from reliance on individual teacher resilience towards coordinated professional development, policy reform, and systemic support. By centring teachers’ agency and expertise, it offers insights for stakeholders concerned with sustaining education and social recovery in contexts of crisis.