Summary

Students in social services, the organization and systems track, and the public administration track benefit from experiential learning. These students will be exposed to trauma in the workplace; therefore, experiential learning experiences in the classrooms and field experiences are valuable for teaching students how to witness, hold space, and problem-solve the underlying causes of interpersonal violence and how to respond to natural disasters. However, these same students are experiencing secondary trauma and traumatization from these experiential lessons. We should be experiencing a moral dilemma when we expose students to trauma-focused on asking ourselves what necessary exposure is, what is safer exposure, and what tools we can provide that will aid students throughout their careers as they encounter traumatizing events and people who are experiencing symptoms of acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress disorders or other cultural expressions of symptoms because of feeling traumatized. The Global Social Work Statement of Ethical Principles and other codes of ethics speaks to our obligation to mitigate harm to our students. For example, social workers must act with integrity, not abusing positions of power and building relationships of trust. Social workers also acknowledge they are accountable for their actions. The Pedagogy of Trauma provides educators and supervisors concrete steps for preparing students to be confronted by trauma, thus mitigating and addressing harm while students are engaged in the experiential learning that is so valuable to their professional development. 

Keywords (separate with commas)

students, experiential learning, trauma, mitigation of harm