The Implementation of Trauma-Informed Practices In Music Education
Date
2022-05
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Trauma and traumatic experiences have been shown to impact the brain and
brain functioning, which in turn can severely impede a student’s ability to learn and
function in a classroom (Perry, 2016). Over the past few decades, trauma-informed
practices have been developed to help mitigate the negative effects of trauma. Trauma informed practices are research and evidence-based strategies that educators and other
professionals use to help support students with trauma. Additionally, music is
frequently used as a modality for the treatment and healing of trauma in the field of
music therapy due to the positive impacts that music has on the brain.
Despite the significant amount of research that focuses on these benefits, there
is currently very little literature on trauma-informed practices in music education. This
thesis aims to fill this gap in the research literature by reviewing current literature in
the fields of music therapy, neuroscience, psychology, and education. For this senior
thesis, I also interviewed three music educators currently implementing trauma informed practices in their music classrooms. I identified key practices educators are
using in their classroom, how they discovered these practices, and what educators
thought were their barriers to implementation based on the interviews and the
literature review.
Description
Keywords
Trauma-informed practices, Classrooms, Music, Education