Creating a Mosaic within Time and Space:: the role of trauma in identity, literacy, and life

Creating a Mosaic within time and space: the role of trauma in identity, literacy and life raises an important issue for the entire reading and literacy education community as it introduces the conversation of a “trauma identity” that grips a person who has experienced severe traumas throughout a lifetime. Because it also exposes an inner, psychic life of one individual college student as she is developing into adulthood, anyone with similar experiences will identify with her pain. While so many children have experienced or witnessed atrocities in their short lifetime, our understanding of students who hurt has not been fully developed to meet their needs in depth. This book is one teacher’s attempt to expose this individual’s ordeal so that we can learn from her pain. It brings an awareness of the impact of experience while offering insight into how suffering helps to shape identity. As teachers encounter difficult, yet incredibly bright and talented students, this book offers a possible theory to explain how significant indelible and unalterable experiences may inhibit their performance.

Deborah J Kellner is an Associate Professor of Literacy in the College of Education at the University of Cincinnati. She earned her Ed.D . in Literacy from the University of Cincinnati. She holds a Master’s Degree in Reading Education from State University of New York College at Buffalo and a Master’s Degree in Counseling from Xavier University.