This article discusses theoretical lenses drawn from scholars in the interdisciplinary
field of trauma studies to consider students’ positioning in relation
to emotional-cognitive, private-public dichotomies that permeate normative
notions of what can and should count as successful engagement with school.
Specifically, we explicate Caruth’s metaphor of the speaking wound, in conversation
with other trauma studies scholarship, to consider the representations
of lived experiences carried into classrooms and the consequences of
interpreting and representing students’ lives. To provide context for our conceptual
argument, we discuss qualitative data of two students’ experiences
across a school year. We argue that trauma theory illuminates two overlapping,
yet distinguishable, ways trauma can be productively conceptualized
in schools and marshaled as a context for analyzing structural inequities:
first, to consider the trauma individuals carry into classrooms as a potential
source for deepening students’ connections to school; second, to recognize
how some students’ positioning within the institution of public schooling
in the United States constitutes a trauma that must be heard and proactively
addressed. In both conceptualizations, we argue for inserting trauma theory
into conversations about the moral and pedagogical imperative to work
toward increased equity in schools and classrooms.