The new TIGERS Tool, is a professional development opportunity that accompanies our digital drama DISPLACED, Goshway’s Journey, the true story of a boy who flees home due to war. TIGERS Tool has been designed to supplement the narrative experience, facilitate discussion, and make space for psychological safety as well as metacognition when unpacking a narrative the centers childhood displcement.
Like all of our training we have been mindful to create TIGERS Tool in the spirit of universal design for learning and practical application. This means that it can be used in an auditory only format, with or without visuals; and includes interactive exercises to scaffold and reinforce key concepts. It may be used for trainings taking place in a traditional training classroom where those seeking professional development meet face to face. Yet it works just as well in a virtual classroom, or for an asynchronous learning group. Solo self-guided study is possible as well, and learning outcomes are similar.
The term “TIGERS” is an acronym and stands for Trauma Informed Guide for Educators and Recovering Survivors. Typically the”educators” we are referring to are all of the teachers and staff in a learning community because all adults in the community have a role to play as role models and child educators, from the greeters to the classroom aids, to the school nurses. Generally, the “survivors” we are referring to are the children in our learning communities, but we must also acknowledge that the child’s entire family may have faced adversity, which in turn affects the child in multiple ways. TIGERS Tool centers the stories of children. The Tool is available through the THENCE subscriptions, and like all of our PD, draws from multiple areas of research. The TIGERS Tool draws from Indigenous studies, psychology, social science, cognitive science, human development, neuroscience, and education.
Many may be surprised to learn that in this long list of research areas, Indigenous studies comes first. In fact indigenous scholars have and continue to make key contributions to the field of psycology, and our understanding of trauma, historical trauma, survivorship, recovery, decolonizing processes, efforts to recover general health, and healing. TIGERS Tool always accompanies a Digital Drama.
The book “Displaced” now available everywhere books are sold. is the story of a young indigenous boy as he navigates his scholastic life following the major life event of having to flee home and community in the 1970s. In many ways the protagonist is our teacher; we learn about his journey once through listening to the digital drama Displaced, and a second time through the lens of the TIGERS Tool, which as a study guide enables a deeper dive into understanding childhood displacement, adversity, scarcity, trauma, and recovery. The TIGERS Tool therefore presents and incorporates key terminology and areas of subject matter knowledge from the fields of psychology, human development and cognitive science.
