Teacher Professional Development on Trauma-Informed Care: Tapping into Students’ Inner Emotional Worlds

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a multipronged, trauma-informed professional development for teachers at a K-8, Title I public school in an urban city. The instructional approach involved four elements: (1) training on trauma-informed care related to student development, learning, and skill-building, (2) prepared lesson plans for classroom implementation, including classroom scripts, activities, and student handouts, (3) specialized support during class application, and (4) expert feedback on self-reflective journal entries. Qualitative results underscored two main themes regarding the professional development influence on teachers. First, as teachers opened a window into their students’ lives, their understanding, responsiveness, and relatedness changed. They began to view their students as children first and learners second, allowing them to relate in a manner of empathy and compassion. Secondly, teachers began to change themselves as they altered their responses beyond the classroom to their own families and others around them. Thus, gaining access to students’ inner emotional worlds helped change teachers’ internal experiences and interactions with their outer world. Quantitative results highlighted significant pre-and posttest differences in compassion satisfaction and secondary traumatic stress (STS) despite instructional disruptions due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Implications include offering school-wide trauma-informed professional development for school personnel to understand their students’ life experiences better and thus their learning environment beyond the classroom.