PRESENTING SUPERB RESEARCH THAT ADVANCES THE FIELD OF EDUCATION
Teaching Through Generational Traumas
Adaptive Practices to Combat Dissociation While Addressing the Impacts of Respectability
- Publisher
Myers Education Press - ISBN 9781975507527
- Language English
- Pages 125 pp.
- Size 6" x 9"
- Request Exam Copy
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- Publisher
Myers Education Press - ISBN 9781975507541
- Language English
- Pages 125 pp.
- Size 6" x 9"
- Request E-Exam Copy
Teaching Through Generational Traumas offers a
powerful and timely exploration of what it means to teach, learn, and thrive in
higher education while navigating the weight of generational wounds.
Written by historian and educator Detrice L. Roberts, this book blends personal
reflection, scholarly research, and experience-based classroom practice to
uncover how trauma, identity, and resilience shape today’s student experience.
At its core, this book challenges the idea that education is only about
transmitting knowledge. Instead, Roberts presents the classroom as a space of
transformation where students must be equipped not only with intellectual tools
but also the social and emotional skills necessary to face the complexities of
modern life. Drawing on frameworks including Social and Emotional Learning
(SEL), the VARK learning model, and culturally relevant pedagogy, Roberts
simultaneously offers instructors and students pathways to recognize identity,
manage emotions, and build meaningful and productive connections between past
and present.
Being able to differentiate instruction relies on our understanding of the
types of learners that we have in our classroom and exploring the factors
associated with why students are disconnected academically. These very factors
can then be addressed and used to enhance student experiences and ability to
learn through learner-defined curriculum development.
Teaching Through Generational Traumas moves through layered themes
reflecting Roberts’s dual perspective as both teacher and learner. Part I
situates the conversation historically, acknowledging how generational traumas
rooted in slavery, segregation, and systemic racism, continue to impact Black
students in higher education. Part II explores the lived experience of
respectability politics, dissociation, and the subtle pressures students face
to perform identities that do not always align with their authentic selves.
Part III shifts to pedagogical innovation, highlighting Roberts’s seven
classroom practices: Socratic questioning, storytelling, critical pedagogy,
SEL, opening rituals, culturally relevant teaching, and digital humanities.
Each practice is illustrated through vivid classroom narratives, emphasizing
how teaching strategies can nurture critical thinking while affirming student
identity. In the final section, Roberts invites students, educators, and
readers alike to consider methods of perpetual growth that extend beyond the
classroom. She frames education not as a temporary pursuit, but as a lifelong
journey of reflection, resilience, and meaning-making. The book closes with an
Ode to the HBCU, honoring the historic and ongoing role of Historically Black
Colleges and Universities as sites of cultural affirmation, intergenerational
pride, and transformative education.
Teaching Through Generational Traumas is a call to reimagine what
education can be when it is rooted in empathy, awareness, and liberation. It
speaks directly to faculty, administrators, and students at HBCUs and beyond,
while also offering insights for those interested in the intersections of
history, identity, and pedagogy. By weaving together scholarship, lived
experience, and practical strategies, Roberts demonstrates how we can confront
the challenges of dissociation, respectability, and trauma, and instead
cultivate spaces where students and instructors learn, heal, and transform
together.
Perfect for courses such as: Foundations of Education; Teaching and
Learning in Higher Education; Culturally Relevant Pedagogy / Multicultural
Education; Trauma-Informed Teaching Practices; Educational Leadership &
Policy Studies; Sociology of Education / Education and Society
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Preface
Part I: Where the Ancestors Once Stood
The Historical Landscape
Historically Black Colleges and Universities as Spaces of Diversity
The Soil and What Grew From It
Self-Imposed Invisibility and Problematic Dissociation
Identity Map Exercise
Reflective Journaling Prompts
Identity Kaleidoscope: Perspectives From Winters College
Act I: The Stage I Can’t Step On
Family Control and the Fight For Independence
Reflective Prompt
Respectability and Resistance
Respectability in Modern Culture
Black Imagery in Social Media
Act II: Drifting in the Middle Lane
Finding Your Identity Beyond Family Traditions and Expectations
Reflective Prompt
Foundations and Founders: Introducing the Divine Nine
Act III: White N*gga
Claiming Your Identity
Colorism and the Different Shades of Blackness
Racial Passing
Reflective Prompt
Part II: From Dissemblance to Dissociation: A Modern Survival Mechanism
Navigating Student Life and Adulthood
Act IV: Uncle, Soldier, Husband, Student
Balancing Adulthood and Student Life
Reflective Prompt
Act V: Smiles Between IV Drips
Pushing Through Painful Realities
Reflective Prompt
The Pain of Suffering in Silence—Smiling and Pushing Through
The Pain of Suffering in Silence—Medicate and Isolate
Act VI: High and Hiding Places
The Hidden Cost of Transitioning to New Environments
Reflective Prompt
Act VII: Memphis on My Back
The Demands of Institutional Support
Academic Scholars
Athletic Scholarships
International Students and Scholarships
The Invisible Divide
Reflective Prompt
Part III: Reclaiming Wholeness: Learning as Healing
Act VIII: The Weight of Winning
Balancing Acts and a Superhero Complex
Reflective Prompt
Navigating Through Discomfort
Act IX: After the Silence
The Quiet Survivor
Reflective Prompt
Reflections and Continuations: Winters College
Revisited Reflection Prompts for the Generational Scholar
Guided Journaling Exercise: “Coming Home to Myself”
Ode to the HBCU: A Closing Meditation
Bibliography
Appendix A: Glossary of Key Terms
Appendix B: List of HBCUs
About the Author
Index
NOTE: Table of Contents subject to change up until publication date.
Detrice L. Roberts
Detrice L. Roberts is a historian, educator, and scholar whose work explores the intersections of history, higher education, and cultural identity. She currently serves as a professor of history at Jackson State University, where she teaches courses in U.S. History, World Civilization, and African American experiences, and as an adjunct faculty member at Tougaloo College. In both classrooms, Roberts emphasizes the importance of connecting historical study to the lived realities of her students, blending traditional scholarship with digital humanities, social and emotional learning, and culturally relevant pedagogy. Roberts’s research focuses on the legacies of African American resilience and cultural memory, with particular attention to African American women’s experiences in the post-emancipation era, the role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and the power of digital storytelling in preserving generational knowledge. Beyond the classroom, Roberts is the co-founder of Thee Africana Digital Humanities Lab (ADHL) at Jackson State, an initiative dedicated to digitizing archives, preserving Black history, and training students in digital scholarship. She is also engaged in numerous community-based projects, including historical preservation, midwifery heritage work, and civic engagement through nonprofit leadership. A graduate of Jackson State University with a Master of Arts in History, Roberts is pursuing an Executive Ph.D. in Urban Higher Education. Her teaching and research reflect her belief that history is not only about the past but about cultivating the tools students need to navigate identity, resilience, and liberation in the present.
