Teaching and Learning During A Pandemic: How one Graduate Community Psychology Class Quickly Incorporated Healing Justice Into Our Practices

• Published in: American Journal of Community Psychology 2021-09, Vol.68 (1-2), p.249-265
• Main Authors: Langhout, Regina Day, Rodriguez Ramirez, Daniel, Vaccarino‐Ruiz, S. Sylvane, Alonso Blanco, Valeria, Quinteros, Katherine, Copulsky, Daniel, Lopezzi, Miguel A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activism; Collective action; Community psychology; Community psychology training; COVID-19; First Person Account; Healing justice; Justice; Learning; Pandemics; Teaching; Trauma
• ISSN: 0091-0562; 1573-2770
• DOI: 10.1002/ajcp.12524

In this first‐person account, we describe the changes we made to align our graduate student‐level community psychology class with a healing justice model. We undertook this intervention because the class started in March, at the beginning of the COVID‐19 pandemic stay‐at‐home directive in our region. We describe the facets of a healing justice model, which promotes radical healing and collective action in a trauma‐informed environment. We then discuss the changes we made to the class to better align with healing justice, including how enrolled students (i.e., co‐authors) experienced the process of the course (e.g., reworking the syllabus, starting class with check‐ins and an exercise to engage our parasympathetic nervous systems), as well as the content of the course (e.g., service projects to support people who are undocumented, unhoused, or minoritized in other ways; photovoice). We end with implications for teaching community psychology, including the importance of universal design, and for scholar‐activist PhD programs. Highlights Community psychology courses and changes to make during stay at home orders. Community psychology training, taking into account trauma during a pandemic. Healing justice as an class intervention to support developing scholar‐activists.