Intergenerational Trauma and Residential Schools: Implications from Neuroscience and Epigenetics

The relatively new field of epigenetics has emerged emphasizing that environmental interactions including social relationships, may affect the epigenome, learning, and behavior. Epigenetics, the study of environmental factors that affect DNA expression, raises important implications for the impact the Canadian education system has had on Indigenous peoples. Educators are tasked with addressing the pressing issues of residential school trauma. This presentation will include recent neuroscience and epigenetics implications for brain health, learning and memory. Recommendations will include taking a wholistic approach highlighting an understanding that environmental influences may have important influences on the epigenome.