Trauma-Informed Socially Just Research: Principles, Challenges, and Strategies

Goal The proposed workshop will focus on enhancing participants’ knowledge and skills in conducting socially just trauma-informed research. Specifically, participants will learn how to apply an ADEI lens to address conceptual, methodological, and ethical challenges in planning and executing studies designed to enhance knowledge that adds to current trauma theory, practice, and policy. Rationale Social justice and marginalized populations are foci of social work. Nevertheless, although racial and ethnic minorities, indigenous, economically disadvantaged, and other population groups are disproportionally affected by traumatic exposure, their voices have been missing from trauma research, which has been dominated by North-Western, androcentric paradigms (Berger & Klonover, 2023). With the increasing nature- and human-made traumatic exposure impacting individuals, families, communities, and organizations, and the growing recognition of the politics of trauma (Haines, 2019), to generate trauma knowledge about diverse population groups, researchers should employ the ADEI lens and collaborative research in studying trauma (Voite et. al., 2020). Topics The presenters will use their expertise and extensive international and domestic experience in trauma research and practice to facilitate a discussion of employing ADEI principles and applying a social justice lens to conducting trauma research. The main points that will be addressed include social justice, ADEI-focused lens, and collaborative research strategies throughout the research process and in all the research decisions and procedures including: Choosing an approach (e.g. quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods); Selecting an appropriate design (e.g. community-based participatory research); Identifying relevant theoretical frameworks to inform the definition of concepts and/or sensitizing of constructs; Developing inclusive samples and sampling strategies that reflect the socio-political history and context of the research location and the potential participants including systems of privilege and oppression; Choosing diversity-sensitive and culturally appropriate data-collecting strategies and instruments; Employing cultural humility and a collaborative approach in analyzing data; Developing awareness and reflexivity of the potential impact of the researcher’s positionality throughout the research process (e.g. conceptualizing the research question, recruitment of participants, collecting and analyzing data); Identifying and addressing ethical considerations applicable to the specific research projects; Ensuring equity in dissemination of findings. Barriers to application and strategies to address them. Pedagogy The facilitators will present and illustrate principles and critical issues for conducting socially just trauma research based on their experiences in studying trauma in diverse socio-cultural contexts. Participants will be invited and encouraged to discuss how the presented content applies to their research and mutually share and address questions, concerns, and suggestions for effective strategies to conduct trauma studies.

Berger, R. & Klonover, E. (2023). The role of culture in PTG: How socio-political context shapes the process, dynamics, and outcomes In R. Berger, ed. The Routledge international handbook of posttraumatic growth (83-93). Routledge. Haines, S. K. (2019). The politics of trauma: Somatics, healing, and social justice. North Atlantic Books. Voith, L. A., Hamler, T., Francis, M. W., Lee, H. & Korsch-Williams, A. (2020). Using a trauma-informed, socially just research framework with marginalized populations: Practices and barriers to implementation, Social Work Research, 44 (3), 169–181, https://doi.org/10.1093/swr/svaa013