Shifting Teacher Practice in Trauma-Affected Classrooms: Practice Pedagogy Strategies Within a Trauma-Informed Positive Education Model

• Published in: School mental health Vol. 11; no. 3; pp. 600 - 614
• Main Authors: Brunzell, Tom, Stokes, Helen, Waters, Lea
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.09.2019; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: At Risk Students; Attachment; Behavior; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child Abuse; Child and School Psychology; Child Neglect; Classroom Techniques; Classrooms; Clinical Psychology; Curriculum Development; Developmental Psychology; Education; Educational Attainment; Elementary Secondary Education; Faculty Development; Learning; Mental health; Neurosciences; Pedagogy; Post traumatic stress disorder; Program Development; Program Implementation; Psychology; Stress response; Student Needs; Student resistance; Teacher Competencies; Teachers; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Trauma; Violence; Wellbeing; Classroom strategies; Healing; Pedagogy; Growth; Trauma-informed education
• ISSN: 1866-2625; 1866-2633
• DOI: 10.1007/s12310-018-09308-8

This study explored how primary and secondary school teachers changed their practice pedagogy as they underwent training in trauma-informed positive education (Brunzell et al., Contemp School Psychol 20:63–83, 2016b . https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-015-0070-x ). TIPE integrates teaching strategies from two practice paradigms: trauma-informed education and positive education in order to educate vulnerable students who struggle in school due to trauma histories from abuse, neglect and/or violence. Over the course of 1 year, teachers ( N  = 18) co-designed and/or adapted TIPE through an iterative procedure of appreciative inquiry participatory action research. The aim was to strengthen teacher capacities in order to assist their students to overcome classroom-based adversity and to bolster their learning. This study privileged teachers’ phenomenological experience of TIPE by investigating the experiential aspects of planning for and implementing curriculum and classroom management. Two emergent themes were found in the qualitative data: (1) increasing relational capacity and (2) increasing psychological resources. These results were analysed through contemporary frames of teacher practice, which revision the purpose of teacher practice as a set of practice challenges to better assist teachers in educating their vulnerable student cohorts.