Individuation, trauma and identity

The chapter addresses the tension between the emphasis on resilience in contemporary education discourse and the understanding of cultural and institutional trauma in the history of secondary education. While dismissed as individualistic ‘identity politics’, the claiming of sexed, gendered and racialised identities emerges from resistance to historical trauma. The chapter provides an insight into the psychological process of individuation and ideas of trauma informed and trauma responsive organisations. It explores the representation of traumatised identities in stories from the early 2020s, including Blue Jean , Sex Education , Heartstopper , Adolescence , Rocks and Waterloo Road .