Jennifer Eidum publishes article on community-engaged teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

Eidum, assistant professor of English, published the article "Embracing Disruption: A Framework for Trauma-informed Reflective Pedagogy," in the journal Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric.

Jennifer E. Eidum, assistant professor of English, recently authored the article, “Embracing Disruption: A Framework for Trauma-informed Reflective Pedagogy,” in the special COVID-19 centered Fall/Winter 2021-22 issue of the community-engaged writing and rhetoric journal, Reflections.

Utilizing her prior research on reflective writing, Eidum developed a framework for trauma-informed integrative reflection while teaching a course on Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in Fall 2020. With support from the Kernodle Center for Civic Life, students in the course worked with ESOL classes at Alamance Community College, tutoring adult English learners and supporting ACC staff as they adapted to pandemic teaching.

In the article, Eidum highlights two aspects of the TESOL course developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: first, a framework for integrative reflection that supports adaptation and student learning throughout the semester, and second, the structures of trauma-informed reflective practice that she integrated throughout the course design.

Ultimately, the process of active reflection and open communication supported students and community partners at ACC to make the best of a challenging teaching and learning situation.

Reflections, a peer-reviewed journal, provides a forum for scholarship on public rhetoric, civic writing, service-learning, and community literacy. Originally founded as a venue for teachers, researchers, students and community partners to share research and discuss the theoretical, political and ethical implications of community-based writing and writing instruction, Reflections publishes a lively collection of scholarship on public rhetoric and civic writing, occasional essays and stories both from and about community writing and literacy projects, interviews with leading workers in the field, and reviews of current scholarship touching on these issues and topics.