3. Looking at Learning in the Face of Trauma

As mentioned, Judith Herman's definition of trauma states that trauma is caused by events which “overwhelm the ordinary systems of care that give people a sense of control, connection and meaning” (Herman, 1992, p.33). Many writers have suggested that therapy for trauma victims should be directed at helping the survivor to regain a sense of control, meaning and connection in her life. This observation helps us see where an overlap between literacy and therapy may occur, even if programs are not aware that learners have experienced trauma or that the literacy involvement can be therapeutic. Issues of control, connection and meaning are central to literacy learning.

Control

Trauma entails being controlled by others and being out of your own control. One of the effects of trauma is that control becomes a complex and difficult terrain. Seeing that women continue to struggle with control - feeling that they can't have it, trying to hold on to it, not wanting to be responsible - may be crucial to understanding some of the interactions which take place in a literacy program. This might begin to reveal why many of our approaches in literacy often lead to explosions, conflict and various tensions and difficulties. Many literacy programs seek to be learner-centered, to encourage learners to set goals and take a role in running programs by sitting on committees and boards of directors. All these processes take learners into that same fraught terrain of control, but at best, only limited support is provided for learners to learn to navigate their own processes of being effectively in control. Asking learners to “take control,” while failing to help them to explore safely what that means or support them in learning about control, sets learners up for failure. Yet what adequate support would look like, has yet to be explored.

Several literacy workers talked about the importance of the program putting as much control into learners' hands as possible, at the same time as exploring questions of control with learners. Depending on the structure of the program learners may be able to start and stop when they choose, to move on to new work, or back to old when they are ready, to choose whether to follow up their own interests or work on class material. At the bare minimum, when learners start and stop, perhaps several times, it is important that program workers recognize that they may be exploring taking control, and leaving when they are uncomfortable. A literacy worker may need to be cautious, not to push someone to continue, or to reject and judge them for stopping. The stance that respects a learner's choice AND maintains a link to encourage her to return is a sensitive balance.

Supporting learners in learning how to control their own pace of work and choose the work they are ready for can be an important step in exploring control for many learners. Recognizing the importance of learner control might suggest that a program which encourages learners to be fully in control of their own learning would be an ideal method for learners to regain a sense of control. However, counselors and therapists often suggested that too much freedom can be scary and difficult, particularly for those who have not had much experience being in control. It may also be that a program which looks structureless and open for learners to control has hidden layers of expectations and judgments about what “proper” participation looks like. A combination of boundaries, structure and freedom for a student to exercise some control may be a crucial, but difficult, balance to find. The challenge of teaching learners to set goals and make choices needs to be part of the literacy learning.