Considering school exclusion in the context of racial trauma

In response to EYST Wales’ first research report exploring school exclusions, Kate Mills (Education Co-ordinator) from Show Racism the Red Card Wales has written a blog about school exclusions and its link with racial trauma.

Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC) is the UK’s leading anti-racism educational charity. SRtRC Wales produces educational resources and platforms to challenge misconceptions, stereotypes and negative attitudes in society. They work extensively with school children, teachers and other educational professionals to deliver anti-racism training in schools.

Trauma has impact. Racial trauma has impact. We know this, but did you know that some of this impact manifests in physical, as well as mental and emotional symptoms?
Before starting my work at Show Racism the Red Card in 2016, I certainly didn’t. Yet once I began to unpack and unpick it, it all made sense.  According to MIND, trauma can make us feel anger, numbness, fear, restless, confused and hypervigilant (to name just a few feelings). It can also cause headaches, pain, tiredness, appetite changes, and memory problems (again, this is not an exhaustive list). What’s more, a person who experiences trauma might experience all, some, or even none of these.

I’ve had the pleasure of visiting a number of different pupil referral units to deliver anti-racism education as part of my role. And I say pleasure because my experiences truly have been so positive. There is the feeling that the staff truly know the pupils and, in turn, the pupils trust the staff. For some of these children and young people, trauma has weighed heavily in their lives so being in a nurturing environment that gives them the space to challenge, to feel and to learn is vital. But we have to question, how did many children reach that space? Often they’re there because they’ve been expelled from mainstream schools or have benefited from invested teachers or families pushing hard for support. In some ways, these children are the lucky ones. Although they are no longer in mainstream education, their needs are being met. But what about the children who are exhibiting symptoms of trauma, and specifically racial trauma, in mainstream education?

As a former secondary school teacher, I understand how demanding a teacher’s role is. It is a case of constantly managing competing priorities and sometimes things slip down the priority list. It is here that opportunities for training, around trauma, for example, can be missed. Sometimes children can be written off as ‘attention-seeking’, ‘work-avoidant’ or ‘naughty’ with no recognition of these behaviours being a symptom of something bigger. If school didn’t feel like a safe place for you, wouldn’t you want to avoid it? If you were scared your classmates were going to make racist comments, might you not think of redirecting their attention through other behaviours? Might you not feel angry at the world and act out? Or sad and defeated and simply withdraw? Rather than simply punishing children or making threats around the trouble they will be in, we need to understand the reasons for the negative behaviour.

At Show Racism the Red Card, school staff frequently make comments to us expressing surprise that certain ‘difficult’ pupils engage so well with our work. This engagement is down to a number of factors – skilled facilitators, task orientated workshops that do not require strong literacy skills and the focus on football, to name a few. However, for some children with lived experience of racism, it is the celebration of people who look like them and the acknowledgement of how difficult life can be as a result of experiencing racism. I vividly remember sharing an animation called Roads from the Past, from the Traveller Times website, and the pure excitement of two 7-year-old boys with Gypsy heritage that their culture was being positively recognized in school.

 So what about the rest of the time? If a child or young person doesn’t see anyone who looks like them represented positively any other time in school, why wouldn’t they become disengaged? Why wouldn’t school feel like a safe space for them? If we’re going to challenge this ethnic disproportionality in school exclusions data, we must first create spaces where all children see themselves positively reflected and know that they are safe.

Useful Links

Mind article on the Effects of Trauma Effects of trauma - Mind

Traveller Times – Roads from the Past Roads from the Past: A Short History of Britain's Gypsies, Roma and Travellers | Travellers Times (Cymraeg Roads From The Past – Welsh Language Version (youtube.com) )

Show Racism the Red Card website – Here you can access free resources on our education hub, book training for schools, workplaces and more, and boost your own knowledge around anti-racism on the Voices section Home - Show Racism the Red Card