Enabling Thoughtful Teachers: Laying the foundations for Trauma Informed and Restorative Practice for Pre-service Teachers

The onset of COVID-19 has unmasked many issues relating to the health and well-being of children and teachers and how this affects the learning environment. For students this includes increases in reported incidents of family and domestic violence, greater gaps in learning between those with supportive and those with non-supportive home learning environments, and increased difficulty adjusting to social behaviours within the classroom. Understanding the impact of stress, trauma and adversity has never been so important for university lecturers and their students, schoolteachers and their students, and our communities (Ko, et al., 2008). It is vital that we learn new ways to respond to the impact of trauma and how this affects the learning and teaching environment. This research followed a case study methodology through instigating a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the effects of complex trauma on children’s learning outcomes. Phenomenological analysis of the qualitative data collected in the semi-structured interviews was conducted which resulted in the identification of themes and strategies commonly used by professionals who work with children who have/are experiencing complex trauma. The findings from this research have been embedded into existing ITE courses to increase the knowledge and understanding about i) the impact of trauma and other adverse childhood experiences on behaviour; and ii) the detrimental impact of punitive behaviour management and the potential benefits of restorative practice. This research used a collaborative approach to identify strategies for overcoming systemic barriers to responding to children experiencing complex trauma. These strategies will upskill pre-service and in-service teachers to improve learning outcomes for children experiencing complex trauma.