Incorporating Trauma-Informed Educational Practice into the Baccalaureate Social Work Classroom

BSW students are often exposed to traumatic material in social work education programs. MSW programs have addressed this need by creating trauma-informed educational practice and curriculum for students. However, BSW students should be able to understand and recognize trauma to be competent, knowledgeable, and responsive in their generalist social work. This teaching note intends to inform and motivate BSW educators to consider integrating trauma-informed educational practices into their own teaching. First, we outline the importance of trauma-informed educational practice in social work education. Then, we illustrate the incorporation of this model specifically in the BSW classroom through sharing several classroom strategies that we use in our BSW classrooms. Two specific case vignettes are offered, and the importance of support for faculty to implement and continue to use these strategies is also addressed.