The LMU School of Education (SOE) is about preparing professionals to work in the field of education and human development, and my vision is to grow from this strong foundation. Historically, the School of Education has had a strong social justice emphasis, and it has an excellent reputation in the field. We’re going to lean into these strengths and move beyond general social justice by embracing the notion of diversity, equity, and inclusion through evidenced-based examples in the partner schools and community organizations.
One of the significant funding priorities for the school is establishing a Center for Trauma Informed Education. The purpose of the center is to assist schools in supporting the social and emotional well-being of all students and adults who learn and work within the school. It goes without saying, but this past year has brought to the surface just how overwhelmed a lot of children and adults are from the pandemic. Not just the isolation, but then when you layer onto that the unknowns regarding death, housing and food insecurities, parents losing their jobs, the racial injustice that has been palpable and brought to the surface over and over again, and political uprisings — all these things are adding to the stress that a lot of kids are feeling, a lot of their teachers are feeling. This can undermine the learning process.
The Center for Trauma Informed Education and Care will do four things: 1) provide direct clinical services, counseling and school psychology services to schools and individual students and teachers; 2) support the School of Education in threading socio-emotional and trauma informed care in all of our programming so that our teachers, leaders, counselors, and school psychologists are ready to support kids once they go back to school; 3) provide professional development and curriculum support that can be used within the classroom with students; 4) and finally, conduct research. We want to know whether or not we’re having intended impact and how we can then scale that impact to other schools should it be as positive as we hope it will be.