Using UDL to Create Trauma-Informed Instruction
This week's episode with Zacham Kabantiok focuses on teachers who are using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to support out-of-school learners who are experiencing trauma in Northeastern Nigeria. Zacham's story is framed around the trauma that learners experience in areas of conflict. It introduces how the UDL framework can be used to design for that type of systematic variability – meaning, the systematic experience of trauma and how that affects learning.
Instead of creating a new blog on how UDL can be used to address trauma, I am pointing you toward an executive brief I wrote for the implementing partner involved with the Opportunity to Learn (OTL) project. Inclusive Development Partners has been sharing the UDL framework with educators across multiple countries and I had the privilege of writing a piece about UDL and trauma for them a few years ago. Even with the updates to the 3.0 guidelines, the brief is still relevant.
I invite you to read: Trauma-informed instruction and Universal Design for Learning.