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

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Abstract

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.

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Notes

  1. A third theme emerged from the study: “Increasing self-regulation in trauma-affected students”. Due to the significant nature of these findings and the limitations within the scope of the current report, please see (Brunzell, Stokes, & Waters, 2016a) for in-depth exploration and analysis of this theme.

  2. Amongst the 18 original participants, two teachers dropped out of the study after the first term of the school year when they vacated their positions in their schools.

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Funding

Funding was received through an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne Graduate School of Education, 5th Floor, 100 Leicester Street, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Tom Brunzell

  2. Youth Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Parkville, Australia

    Helen Stokes

  3. Centre of Positive Psychology, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Parkville, Australia

    Lea Waters

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Correspondence to Tom Brunzell.

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Brunzell, T., Stokes, H. & Waters, L. Shifting Teacher Practice in Trauma-Affected Classrooms: Practice Pedagogy Strategies Within a Trauma-Informed Positive Education Model. School Mental Health 11, 600–614 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-018-09308-8

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