Date of Award

8-15-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Education

Program

Trauma and Resilience in Educational Settings

Capstone Instructor

Dr. Kelly Sadlovsky

Second Reader

Dr. Jeanetta Searcy-Cooper and Kristin Belvins

Keywords

trauma-informed, Karen, culturally responsive, adverse childhood experiences, resilience, secondary trauma

Abstract

This writing explored how trauma-informed practices could best support Karen refugee students in the classroom. The Karen are a small community with a diverse traumatic history (Delang, 2003). Because of this, research explored ways to create a safe and welcoming environment to promote student learning. A review of literature was used to determine the trauma-informed strategies that are most effective in supporting student learning for Karen refugees. Research was conducted across fifteen different sources, which were all original and peer reviewed. A combination of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies were used to determine the most effective trauma-informed practices. Five themes became apparent after analyzing these studies. The first theme explored the effects of trauma in the Karen community (Hoffman et al., 2017). The second, third, and fourth themes determined the effectiveness of establishing a sense of safety, the prevalence of student benefits from building relationships, and the significant impact made from utilizing culturally responsive practices (Kostouros, 2023; Newcomer, 2021; Byrd, 2016). The fifth theme analyzed educators’ needs to provide effective trauma-informed strategies (Berger et al., 2026)

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