BC TEAL 2026 Annual Conference

The objectives of this session are to support educators in applying trauma-informed practices as collective, justice-oriented classroom strategies. By the end of the session, participants will be able to identify trauma-informed responses to common classroom challenges such as silence, disengagement, emotional regulation, and conflict, and apply concrete strategies that foster safety, belonging, and student agency across different language classroom contexts. Participants will also design level appropriate student inquiry or action activity that positions community care as a form of resistance and aligns with principles of equity and human rights.
This session is grounded in trauma-informed educational frameworks that emphasize safety, trust, choice, collaboration, and skill building (Harris & Fallot, 2001; Minahan, 2019). Trauma is understood as shaped by both individual experience and structural conditions, with significant impacts on attention, memory, emotional regulation, and learning (SAMHSA, 2014; Perry, 2006). Drawing on research in trauma-informed education and language learning, the session adopts a critical orientation that resists deficit perspectives and reframes trauma-informed practice as ethical, relational, and collective pedagogical work rather than therapeutic intervention (Carello & Butler, 2014; Boylan, 2021). Classroom strategies emphasize multimodal learning, predictability, and non-disclosure-based participation to avoid retraumatization while supporting engagement and agency
This highly interactive session engages participants in hands-on trauma-informed activities used in real classrooms, including short regulation and grounding practices, selective attention listening tasks, and multimodal expression activities. Participants analyze real classroom scenarios, practice trauma-informed teacher language, and collaboratively redesign a familiar lesson to include choice, flexibility, and community-building structures. The session concludes with participants co-creating a simple, developmentally appropriate student inquiry or action project connected to equity and justice.
Participants will leave with practical classroom activities, adaptable lesson structures, sample trauma-informed language, and a clear framework for supporting student engagement and collective action without requiring personal disclosure.
References:
Boylan, M. (2021). Trauma informed practices in education and social justice: towards a critical orientation. International Journal of School Social Work, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.4148/2161-4148.1071
Carello, J., & Butler, L. D. (2014). Potentially Perilous Pedagogies: Teaching Trauma Is Not the Same as Trauma-Informed Teaching. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 15(2), 153–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/15299732.2014.867571
Harris, M., & Fallot, R. D. (2001). Envisioning a trauma-informed service system: A vital paradigm shift. New Directions for Mental Health Services, 2001(89), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.23320018903


Minahan, J. (2019). Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies. Educational Leadership, 77

This research report examines how intensive English as a foreign language (EFL) learning may relate to student burnout and learning quality in undergraduate programs in a non-Anglophone context. The session aligns with the BC TEAL 2026 theme, “Rooted and Relevant,” by offering context-sensitive, practical options that EAL educators can adapt to local constraints.
Two lenses guide the study. Cognitive load theory suggests that high task demands, rapid pacing, and limited automatized vocabulary may overload working memory and weaken learning quality (Sweller, 2011). Burnout theory frames exhaustion, cynicism, disengagement, and academic efficacy as connected indicators of student well-being and academic functioning (Maslach & Leiter, 2016).
The study uses a mixed-methods design. Survey data (n = 213) were analyzed using a validated 17-item burnout scale that measures exhaustion, cynicism, disengagement, and academic efficacy. Open-ended responses were coded using a structured approach aligned with these dimensions. Results suggest high exhaustion and elevated disengagement. Exhaustion shows strong positive links with cynicism and disengagement. Academic efficacy shows negative links with the other burnout dimensions. Qualitative findings suggest three mechanisms that may intensify burnout in intensive EFL settings: linguistic overload during dense reading, writing, and assessment cycles; translation-driven and test-driven routines that may limit deep processing; and identity threat when capable students underperform and lose confidence in using English for academic work.
The session presents key findings and then translates them into feasible actions. These include entry diagnostics with targeted support, glossed and leveled materials, explicit teaching of academic vocabulary and discourse moves, assessment designs that reduce construct-irrelevant language load, and brief well-being check-ins to support timely referral when needed. Participants leave with ideas that can be implemented in courses, tutoring units, and program planning.

This session presents a strength‑based approach to fostering flourishing in adult ESL classrooms. It draws on theoretical insights and related scholarship on personality‑driven motivation and interpersonal strengths (Maccoby, 2018; Porter, 1976; Scudder, 2021) combined with insights from Cultural Intelligence scholarship (Livermore, 2024), to help educators understand how differing motivational tendencies, in both learners and teachers, can come to bear on classroom interaction, engagement, and the experience of safety.
The objectives of the session are to: (1) increase educators’ awareness of the diverse personality‑based strengths adult ESL learners bring; (2) explore how a teacher’s own motivational patterns and preferred strengths influence classroom dynamics, expectations, and interpretations of learner behaviour; (3) demonstrate how instructional choices can create flourishing conditions across personality types; and (4) equip participants with strategies for recognizing and responding when normal, healthy strengths may unintentionally trigger discomfort or conflict in others.
A brief theoretical synopsis highlights how individuals tend to act from core motivational patterns, including tendencies to be people‑focused, task‑focused, process‑focused, or flexibility‑focused, and how these tendencies come to bear on communication preferences, decision-making, and stress responses. In adult ESL classrooms, this awareness supports asset‑oriented pedagogy by reducing misinterpretation, enhancing relational understanding, and strengthening psychological safety to support flourishing of both learners and teachers.
Workshop activities include analyzing classroom vignettes to identify motivational value patterns and strengths being expressed, and role‑playing teacher responses that promote well-being or de‑escalate emerging tension. Participants will reflect not only on learner strengths, but also on their own natural tendencies, exploring how their “default strengths” influence pacing, feedback style, tolerance for ambiguity, and conflict response. This offers an opportunity to view their own role in the interactional system of the classroom from a strengths-informed perspective and to recognize opportunities for intentional pedagogical choices aligned with a strengths-informed perspective of learner needs.