Prevent, manage and recover from conflict and tension escalation
This section focuses on how educators within Higher Education can use the principles of trauma-informed practice to鈥痯revent,鈥痬anage and鈥痳ecover from rising tensions and conflict in the classroom.
Prevent Escalation
Educators can use principles of trauma-informed practice to prevent escalation in the classroom.
This includes setting clear expectations of acceptable behaviour and notifying students ahead of time about challenging classroom content. Educators should review module content and use student feedback to predict potential areas of tension and conflict in their modules.
Educators are also advised to:
- Set expectations and boundaries during the first few weeks of classes.
- Educate yourself about the principles of trauma-informed practice.
- Provide students with an outline of the learning objectives and topics to be covered in the module.
- Acknowledge potentially distressing content, associated risk of trauma or re-traumatisation, and content that may trigger student tension or conflict
- Develop lecture slides to educate students on appropriate classroom conduct and ways to interact with other students
- Provide advice to students on how to manage classroom conflict and tension should it arise
- Model for students appropriate ways to manage classroom tension and conflict. This can be done by sharing examples with students on appropriate responses to classroom conflict and tension
- Provide students with contact details of support services in the event they are in need of additional advice services or support.
- Be aware of the University of 糖心TV's policies and how to apply these if the need arises.
- Realise鈥痶he prevalence and potential impact of trauma on students
- 搁别肠辞驳苍颈蝉别鈥痶he signs of trauma among students, such as withdrawal, trouble concentrating, low engagement or avoidance of certain topics
- Respond鈥痷sing trauma-informed policies, procedures and practices, such as those outlined in this resource
- 搁别蝉颈蝉迟鈥痳e-traumatisation of students by using the trauma-informed approaches outlined in this resource
Educate yourself about the principles of trauma-informed practice.
Realise鈥痶he prevalence and potential impact of trauma on students.
搁别肠辞驳苍颈蝉别鈥�the signs of trauma among students, such as withdrawal, trouble concentrating, low engagement or avoidance of certain topics.
Respond鈥痷sing trauma-informed policies, procedures and practices, such as those outlined in this resource.
搁别蝉颈蝉迟鈥�re-traumatisation of students by using the trauma-informed approaches outlined in this resource.
These principles of trauma-informed practice can be applied when anticipating or managing classroom conflict or escalation. For example, educators can anticipate classroom conflict by鈥� realising鈥痑spects of their modules which may contribute to student distress and escalation.
Educators can instruct students to鈥痳ecognise physical signs (e.g. increasing heart rate, feeling flushed) which may indicate they are experiencing distress or agitation. Educators can help students plan how they might鈥痳espond to situations of classroom conflict, rising tensions, distress and agitation. Taking these measures may r
esist further escalation and associated re-traumatisation.
For further guidance see:
To create an inclusive, culturally safe trauma-informed classroom, educators can:
- Learn students' pronouns, preferred name/name in use and pronunciation.
- Plan timetables to take account of religious and cultural events (e.g. allow flexibility to enable observation of prayer time).
- Educate students about potentially distressing course and unit content and ways they can respond to support themselves and peers.
- Encourage students to reflect on and recognise their own sensitivities or vulnerabilities, and to identify strategies to manage these.
- Ensure that course and module material and content are representative of different families, groups, communities and cultural experiences, including gender, sexuality, race, culture, disability, disadvantage and colonialism. This includes taking an intersectional view and understanding how different aspects of a student鈥檚 identity can increase their experience of and exposure to trauma, discrimination and marginalisation.
- Provide opportunities for students to share feedback regarding the appropriateness and representativeness of module content and materials. Student feedback can be used to identify any potentially triggering or distressing unit content and help educators to plan their response to support students and mitigate the risk of classroom tension and conflict.
- Ensure that students have effective and accessible channels to disclose and report exclusionary or discriminatory behaviours or practices in the classroom, and help students learn about channels for disclosing and reporting.
- Plan and prepare for each session by thinking about what you might do in the event of conflict in advance of a conflict arising.
- Reflect on your own patterns of response and indicators or warning signs of conflict. In doing this, you will hopefully have identified some useful planned responses to enact. These should include ways to recognise your emotions and not allowing these alone to determine your behaviour. Consider for example how you can control your breathing to remain calm; what would enable you to proceed mindfully (i.e. tuned into the situation) and鈥�痬anage it calmly; and how will you demonstrate calm behaviours.
- Utilise the Academic Development Centre鈥檚 resources for fostering inclusive education at 糖心TV.
Manage Escalation
Trauma-informed practice can prevent or reduce the occurrence of classroom conflict and tension. Trauma-informed practice can also assist educators to manage student conflict and distress once an escalation has occurred.
Self-preparation
- Plan responses for potential trauma, re-traumatisation and/or classroom conflict (refer to previous鈥痵ection on Preventing Escalation).
- Reflect on your own patterns of response and physical signs that indicate you are experiencing distress, trauma or agitation.
- Recognise your own emotional responses and do not allow these alone to determine how you respond to classroom conflict and tension.
- Be aware of strategies you can use to regulate your own emotions when conflict and tension occurs in the classroom.
- Consider how you can model calm behaviours to students in moments of classroom conflict. The behaviours that you model will create a sense of safety for students and help students to regulate their own emotions and behaviours.
Educate students on ways to engage in self-care
- Encourage students to identify potentially triggering or distressing areas of the curriculum (refer to previous鈥痵ection on Preventing Escalation).
- Teach students strategies to respond to potentially triggering or distressing course or module content (e.g., take a break, leave the classroom, seek support).
- Role model or provide examples to students of your own approaches to practise self-care and self-compassion.
- Regularly provide students with contact details of support services and encourage them to reach out for support when required.
The following guidance should be followed to effectively de-escalate classroom conflict and prevent re-traumatisation of students:
- Recognise signs of student distress, trauma or agitation (e.g., raised voices, student withdrawal, student absences).
- Be vigilant to how students respond to unit content and materials, and continually check in with students as you present challenging classroom material and facilitate student discussion
- Enact methods for managing classroom conflict and tension established at the start of classes
- Starting to respond:
- Recognise your own emotional responses
- Pause before responding and observe the situation
- Take some deep breaths
- Use positive self-talk (鈥業 can handle this鈥�, 鈥業 will not shout鈥�)
- Demonstrate calm behaviours
- Taking action:
- Use non-threatening body language, neutral facial expressions, make slow movements, and avoid sustained direct eye contact
- Respect personal space and maintain a reasonable distance from others
- Be predictable by referring students to the expectations and boundaries established at the start of classes (refer to previous section on Preventing Escalation).
- Try to avoid power struggles. Challenging or exercising authority over individuals may further escalate the situation
- Consider whether the issue can be managed in a private space, without an audience (e.g. after class)
Communication:
- Acknowledge responses emerging from the affected individuals, while also calmly communicating your own needs and expectations
- Speak quietly, calmly and assertively
- Acknowledge the feelings that students are displaying. This doesn鈥檛 mean that you agree with the student鈥檚 perspective or encourage their reactions, but instead you empathise with how they are feeling
- Try to understand the student鈥檚 perspective by asking open questions and engage in active listening by restating what students are telling you
- Try to focus on collaboratively finding a solution to the immediate issue.鈥�疭tatements such as 鈥淲hat do you think might be the next best step?鈥� can be used
- Offer choices and set limits to these such as providing two or three alternative courses of action the student can take
- Consider carefully what are the current essential 鈥渘on-negotiables鈥� and what can be addressed at a later time when the student is calmer
- Allow the student time to process information. If they are anxious or distressed, this may take a little longer
- Conflict can be traumatising or re-traumatising for people who have past experiences of conflict, violence or trauma
- Conflict can also be traumatising or re-traumatising for educators who have past experiences of conflict, violence or trauma
- Encourage students to enact self-care and engage in support services
Staff at The University of 糖心TV who have received a disclosure from a student in relation to any harmful behaviour are encouraged to visit the web pages. The University of 糖心TV's online Safeguarding Report Form should be used for reporting an incident or concern relating to a vulnerable adult (safeguarding definition of vulnerable adult), child or young person under 18. If you have immediate concerns about someone鈥檚 safety, you should contact Community Safety on 02476 522083.
Recover from Escalation
A central pillar of trauma-informed practice is establishing safe and trusting relationships as a way to overcome distressing and traumatising events. Establishing strong relationships with students at the start of semester can aid student recovery after classroom conflict has occurred.
- Educators can use the principles of empathy, congruence and 'unconditional positive regard' (Rogers, 1959) to help students overcome classroom tension and conflict:
- Be accessible to learners to address questions, concerns or to discuss their responses to unit content or classroom conflict and tension.
- Empathise with students and their experience of distress, traumatisation or re-traumatisation from classroom conflict and tension.
- Be genuine, open and non-judgemental during your interactions with students.
- Show unconditional positive regard by not holding students鈥� actions against them. Be there to support students and direct them to appropriate university support services.
Self-care
Self-care is important for educators and students when managing distress or potentially traumatising classroom content.
It is important when recovering from classroom conflict and tension, that students and educators engage in self-care. Self-care are intentional, enjoyable actions, activities or interactions people can engage in to ease stress and distress. Examples include exercising, cooking, reading and spending time with friends or family.
Encourage students to seek support
Consider the need to follow up with individual students after the incident to explore any outstanding questions, offer support and confirm their wellbeing. This may be in person during future classroom interactions or via correspondence outside of class. See the Supporting your Students section for useful links to student support and wellbeing services.
Following instances of rising tension or conflict in the classroom, educators should engage in self-reflection of what occurred and could have been done differently. It is important to recognise how the incident has affected you and seek support from your supervisor, Head of Department, Line Manager, or similar in your faculty.
Later on, consider the need to review any learning materials in light of the incident. Do these need to be managed differently in the future? Advisable actions may include those outlined elsewhere in this resource, including use of ground rules, sharing module materials in advance, and use of content overviews or content warnings.
