PROMOTING LEARNING FOR STUDENTS

EXPERIENCING ADVERSITY AND TRAUMA

The Everyday, yet Profound, Actions of Teachers

abstract
This study explored elementary teachers’ strategies for Jessica B. Koslouski
promoting learning for their students experiencing ad- Kristabel Stark
versity and trauma. Recent data suggest that nearly half boston universit y
of all elementary school students in the United States
have experienced at least one potentially traumatic event,
which may have significant and negative consequences
in the classroom. However, teachers are not routinely
taught trauma-informed practices. Qualitative interviews
were conducted with a purposeful sample of 10 elementary
teachers. Thematic analysis revealed six themes: teachers
prioritize relationships with and between students; allo-
cate time to teach self-regulation and social skills; provide
and advocate for academic, social, and emotional sup-
ports; practice cultural humility and responsiveness; strive
to ally with parents; and engage in ongoing learning and
reflection. Teachers also described tensions they experi-
ence while engaging in this work. Implications for educa-
tor professional development and policy are discussed.

N
e a r l y half of all elementary school students have experienced at least
one potentially traumatic event in their brief life spans (Bethell et al.,
2017). Chronic or prolonged exposure to adverse experiences, in the ab-
sence of a nurturing adult, can result in toxic stress or the persistent activa-
tion of a child’s “fight, flight, or freeze” system. This toxic stress can have significant

t h e e l e m e n ta ry s c ho o l j o u r na l
Volume 121, Number 3. Published online February 15, 2021
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l e a rn i ng f o r st ud e n ts e xpe ri e n c i ng a dv e r s i t y a nd t raum a • 431

impacts on brain development, mental health, and the ability to learn in the classroom
(Shonkoff et al., 2012). Despite the significant challenges that students experiencing
trauma may present in classrooms and schools, teachers are not routinely trained
in how to promote learning with these students (Reinke et al., 2011), nor are most
schools engaging in school-wide interventions to support these students. However,
it is likely that many teachers engage in classroom practices that do indeed promote
learning for their students who have experienced adversity and trauma, even if they
have not received explicit or comprehensive training in trauma responsiveness. These
organic actions likely have important and positive consequences for the students
themselves, as well as their peers, teachers, families, and school community. Conse-
quently, in this study, we sought to understand the actions teachers take to promote
learning for their students experiencing adversity and trauma, despite this lack of
comprehensive training.
We begin by summarizing the potential impacts of adversity and trauma on stu-
dents’ school success, demonstrating the need for intervention at the classroom level
to mitigate these risks. We then identify current trauma-informed school approaches
for supporting students who have experienced trauma, and discuss why, despite
growing interest and legislative policy (Harper & Temkin, 2019), most teachers are
not explicitly trained in these interventions. Next, we describe our methods for gath-
ering evidence regarding the ways in which teachers are supporting their students
despite the lack of school-wide implementation. Finally, we present a thematic anal-
ysis of the everyday, yet profound, actions teachers take to support their students. We
conclude with a discussion and directions for future research.

Defining Student Trauma

Many students experience stressful events or circumstances that have the potential to
be traumatic. However, trauma is defined by a student’s reaction to an event or cir-
cumstance, rather than the event or circumstance itself (Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2014). Trauma is often the result of close
encounters with violence and death that violate a student’s sense of control, connec-
tion, and meaning (Herman, 1997). School-age children are particularly vulnerable to
trauma because their early experiences lay the circuitry for their neurological devel-
opment and encode their expectations for the world (Perry & Pollard, 1998). Whereas
adults integrate traumatic experiences into preexisting schemas, traumatic events
function as the foundational schemas of developing children. Consequently, healthy
and normative child development is often compromised for children who experience
trauma (Perry & Pollard, 1998; Shonkoff et al., 2012; van der Kolk, 2005). When early
traumatic experiences are inflicted by a caregiver, or result from the lack of access to a
caregiver, children are likely to develop disrupted attachment patterns, fail to recog-
nize cause and effect, experience chronic feelings of shame and helplessness, lack a
sense of self, and lack language to describe their emotional states (van der Kolk,
2005). As demonstrated by the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study (Felitti
et al., 1998), which linked adults’ retrospective reports of childhood adversity to their
mental and physical health, childhood adversity can have lasting negative impacts
well into adulthood.
432 • t h e el e m e n ta ry sc ho o l j o u r na l m a r c h 2 02 1

Potential Consequences of Trauma on Learning

Trauma causes sustained negative impacts on a child’s functioning and well-being,
including difficulty managing normal day-to-day stress, engaging in relationships,
displaying emotional and behavioral regulation, and managing cognitive processes,
including memory and attention (SAMHSA, 2014). Positive educational outcomes
are often jeopardized for students experiencing adversity and trauma (Porche et al.,
2016). In the classroom, students may exhibit difficulties with processing information,
planning and problem-solving skills, and goal setting (Craig, 2016).
However, because students experiencing trauma may present as withdrawn, defi-
ant, or aggressive in the school setting (van der Kolk, 2005), their barriers to learning
are not always recognized as rooted in trauma. Students may be viewed as noncom-
pliant or disrespectful rather than cognitively and emotionally overwhelmed. If they
are evaluated for psychological distress, due to symptom overlap and varying reac-
tions to traumatic experiences, students may be diagnosed with posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional de-
fiant disorder, depression, and/or anxiety (Merikangas et al., 2010; Perry & Pollard,
1998). All of these diagnoses are associated with barriers to learning but may mask the
underlying trauma.
Even when students’ experiences of adversity and trauma result in a diagnosable
mental health disorder, most students do not receive mental health care (Merikangas
et al., 2011). As a result, classrooms—as spaces that students spend a great deal of time
in—become critical spaces where both the effects of and healing process from trauma
are realized. Whether diagnosed, misdiagnosed, or undiagnosed, the cognitive, psy-
chological, and social impacts of trauma appear in classrooms. In the following sec-
tion, we describe school-based interventions for mitigating the effects of trauma on
learning and describe why these approaches have not been widely disseminated
through teacher trainings.

Trauma-Informed Schools
Originating in the mental and behavioral health field, the term “trauma-informed”
was first introduced by Harris and Fallot (2001), who advocated for mental health
and substance abuse treatment providers to (a) recognize the trauma histories of
their clients, (b) understand the impact of trauma on individuals’ service use and
healing, and (c) design systems that address the needs of trauma survivors to pro-
mote engagement and healing. Since 2001, trauma-informed care has gained attention
across service sectors, including schools (Chafouleas et al., 2016). Trauma-informed
organizations work to uphold four key principles for service and care (the four Rs).
They (a) realize the widespread impact of trauma, (b) recognize the signs and symp-
toms of trauma, (c) respond by integrating knowledge of trauma into policies, proce-
dures, and practices, and (d) actively resist retraumatization (SAMHSA, 2014).
Trauma-informed schools “create educational environments that are responsive to
the needs of trauma-exposed youth through the implementation of effective practices
and system-change strategies” (Overstreet & Chafouleas, 2016, p. 1). At the time of this
study, there were five trauma-informed school professional development programs
in publication and used in schools (Blodgett & Dorado, 2016; Cole et al., 2013; Dorado
lea rn i ng for stu de nts e xpe rie ncing a dversit y and t raum a • 433

et al., 2016; McIntyre et al., 2019; Perry, 2020). Across these approaches, there is a fo-
cus on staff-wide training on the prevalence and neurobiological impacts of trauma.
They also include professional development on instructional and noninstructional
strategies for reaching students. Instructional strategies include multisensory lessons,
predictable classroom routines and transitions, and positive behavioral supports
(Cole et al., 2005). Noninstructional strategies focus on building relationships with
students to strengthen their sense of safety and trust in the classroom. School staff
are also trained to use their understandings of trauma when they collaborate with
parents and colleagues. They are provided opportunities to engage in ongoing learn-
ing and reflection about their students, teaching practice, and school community. Fi-
nally, across these approaches, staff are trained in secondary traumatic stress (STS;
Figley, 1995) and self-care to mitigate STS symptoms and burnout in school staff
(Borntrager et al., 2012).
Initial evaluations of trauma-informed schools have suggested significant increases
in staff understandings of trauma, student engagement, and achievement (Dorado et al.,
2016), and significant reductions in office referrals and suspensions (Stevens, 2012, 2013).
However, because these approaches require a significant investment of time and re-
sources for successful implementation, the use and evaluation of these school-wide
approaches remains very limited (Chafouleas et al., 2016; Overstreet & Chafouleas,
2016). A recent systematic review (Maynard et al., 2019) found that no randomized
controlled trials or quasi-experimental studies of trauma-informed schools had been
published as of September 2017.

Specific Aim
In the absence of widespread training in trauma-informed practices, it is important
to know how teachers are organically promoting learning for students experiencing
adversity and trauma. Although many in the field are calling for more widespread
training of educators (e.g., Cole et al., 2013), to the best of our knowledge, no one
has examined what teachers are doing in their classrooms in the meantime. Conse-
quently, this research study seeks to answer the question “How do teachers promote
learning for students who are experiencing adversity and trauma?” Findings of this
study will shed light on if and how teachers are engaging in practices that address the
effects of their students’ trauma and point to next steps in professional development
training for teachers. In addition, an exploration of the practices in which teachers are
engaged, independent of school-wide trauma-informed systems, may reveal valuable
and important practices not currently integrated into trauma-informed trainings. Un-
derstanding such practices may extend existing conceptions of trauma-informed schools
and provide insight into the value of school-wide systems.

Method
Choice of Methods
Teachers make many calculated decisions in the school day and school year (Ball,
2018) that may not be decipherable to an outside observer or standardized in ways
that are fitting to a survey. Therefore, we chose to interview teachers as experts of
their own practices. Rather than focus on individual differences in teachers’ practices,
434 • th e e le me ntary sc h o o l jo ur na l ma rc h 2 02 1

this study instead synthesizes the experiences of teachers in a variety of settings to un-
derstand common practices through which teachers promote learning for students who
have experienced trauma. We conceptualize practices as the self-described pedagogical
and interpersonal strategies teachers use in the professional work of teaching. Illus-
trating the scope of these practices more effectively points to potential additions to
trauma-informed practices and professional development needs. Consequently, we
used thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to identify themes describing the ac-
tions teachers report taking to promote learning for their students experiencing adver-
sity and trauma.

Data Collection
Participants and recruitment. Because trauma-informed schools are not yet
common, we were interested in learning how teachers were nonetheless responding
to the impacts of trauma in their classrooms. We purposefully sampled a range of
teachers who expressed interest in a study on teachers’ responses to student adversity
and trauma. After obtaining approval from the institutional review board, teachers
were recruited through school administrators familiar to the first author of this article.
Administrators were provided a recruitment letter that described the study aims that
could be shared with their teaching staff. Teachers were purposively sampled to solicit
the experiences and expertise of teachers with a range of teaching experience (i.e.,
grade level and years in the field), in both urban and suburban settings, and from a
variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Ten elementary school teachers (grades K–5) participated in this study. Partici-
pant demographics are presented in Table 1. All participants have a master’s degree
in education. None work in schools that have implemented school-wide trauma-
informed practices. Seven of the participants reported attending isolated after-school

Table 1. Teacher Demographics, Experience, and Current Setting

Participant Race or Years of Current School Current

Pseudonym Ethnicity Experience Setting Grade Level Prior Grades Taughta

Miss Owensb White 2 Urban 2

Ms. Taylorc African 3 Urban K
American
Miss Westd White 3 Urban 1 K
Ms. Perryd White 4 Urban 4 5 (special education)
Ms. Collinsb White 5 Suburban 1 K
Mr. Williamsd African 8 Suburban 4 K–5 (Title 1)
American
Mrs. Gordonb White 10 Suburban 3 1–5 (Title 1)
Ms. Estradad Latina 14 Urban 3 2, 4
Mrs. Palmerb White 15 Suburban 3 K–5 (special education, reading,
2nd-grade classroom teacher)
Mr. Allend Asian 20 Suburban 5 3, 4
American
a
Unless otherwise noted, previous grades taught are as a classroom teacher.
b
Face-to-face interview.
c
Teleconference interview.
d
Phone interview.
lea rn i ng for stu de nts e xpe rie ncing a dversit y and t raum a • 435

trainings on trauma (five attended mandatory one-time trainings, whereas two at-
tended voluntary one-time trainings); two of the teachers also had a small amount
of trauma training in their preservice programs. Student demographics of the schools
the participants worked in at the time of their interview are reported in Table 2.
Our sample includes kindergarten through fifth-grade classroom teachers cur-
rently working in public elementary schools in Massachusetts. Although this range
of grades represents a wide range of student developmental stages, training in trauma-
informed practices is currently conducted at the school level. Therefore, existing school-
wide trauma trainings are intended to meet the needs of this entire sample. Conse-
quently, understanding the practices of elementary school teachers working across
grade levels is a necessary step to inform these school-wide trainings. This study was
also limited to public school teachers because these teachers are most affected by state
policy and initiatives (in this case, toward or away from trauma-informed schools).
Educational priorities are largely determined at the state level; thus, this study was lim-
ited to Massachusetts teachers to allow for connections to state legislation and future
policy recommendations.
Interview procedures. All interviews were conducted by the first author. Partic-
ipants were given the option of a phone, teleconference, or in-person interview. A
semistructured interview protocol (see Appendix) was used. Participants were given
a $25 gift card in gratitude for their time. Throughout data collection and analysis,
multiple measures were taken to protect participant confidentiality. Though partic-
ipants were recruited through school administrators, the administrators were pro-
vided no follow-up information on whether any teachers participated. All participants
were given a pseudonym, and their quotations were carefully reviewed to ensure con-
fidentiality. After each interview, the first author audio-recorded a reflective memo,
detailing impressions, personal reactions and interpretations, any connections to
previous interviews, and potential themes from the interview. The first author

Table 2. Student Demographics of the Schools Participants Currently Work In

African Asian Hispanic/ First Language Students with Economically

Participant American American Latino White not English Disabilities Disadvantaged
Pseudonym (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)

Miss Owens 5 !5 85 10 75 15 70
Ms. Taylor 50 10 15 15 25 30 45
Miss West 20 !5 65 10 20 25 85
Ms. Perry 20 !5 15 50 15 25 45
Ms. Collins !5 !5 10 85 20 20 25
Mr. Williams 5 30 !5 50 30 10 5
Mrs. Gordon !5 !5 15 80 25 15 25
Ms. Estrada 50 !5 45 !5 40 20 70
Mrs. Palmer !5 10 5 80 5 10 5
Mr. Allen 5 30 !5 50 30 10 5
Note.—To protect the confidentiality of participants, schools, and students, student demographics for each school are rounded to
the nearest 5%. The four largest racial/ethnic groups in participants’ schools are reported here; state data collection also reports the
percentage of students who are Native American, Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian, and Multi-Race, Non-Hispanic. Each of the par-
ticipants’ schools had less than !5% of students in each of these categories, with the exception of Mr. Williams and Mr. Allen’s schools,
where approximately 10% of students were multiracial. Race and ethnicity percentages do not total to 100% because of these omissions
and rounding. All data are collected from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website (Massa-
chusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2018).
436 • t h e el e m e n ta ry sc h o o l j o u r na l m a r c h 2 02 1

also wrote an additional memo after the fifth interview to document emerging
interpretations.

Data Analysis
The first author transcribed each of the 10 interviews and recorded memos. Each
transcript was then deidentified, confirmed, and uploaded into NVivo 12 (QSR Inter-
national, 2018). The process of interviewing, transcribing, and confirming the data
allowed for the first author to be deeply immersed in the data. Thematic analysis
(Braun & Clarke, 2006) was used to answer the question “How do teachers promote
learning for students who are experiencing adversity and trauma?” Each transcript
was coded inductively, allowing codes to be developed from teachers’ descriptions
of their actions. We chose to use inductive coding, rather than develop codes from
an existing framework (e.g., Attachment, Regulation, Competence [ARC; Kinniburgh
et al., 2005], which describes how students heal from chronic trauma), to be certain
that we paid attention to any practices which teachers were engaging in that may
not be in existing frameworks or approaches. Once all 10 transcripts were coded,
the codes were reviewed for redundancy and accurate naming. Next, each transcript
was reviewed to be sure that all relevant data were coded.
Once initial coding was completed, the first author organized the codes into clus-
ters of related ideas to explore potential themes. She included examples to help define
and analyze what each potential theme included. She placed contradictory codes
within appropriate clusters and placed codes that did not seem to fit into any of
the potential themes on their own. Next, she created an initial thematic map to ex-
plore how the codes and potential themes related to one another. During this step,
she incorporated some codes that were previously placed on their own into potential
themes, whereas others remained on their own. As the first author continued to ex-
plore relations within and between potential themes, additional provisional maps
were created. Throughout the process, she assessed the relative size of each potential
theme, desiring each theme to represent a similar proportion of the practices teachers
spoke about. Codes continued to be reorganized into potential themes as she contin-
ued to ask herself the research question. At this point, she also reread all of the coded
data and recorded ideas that were not being captured by the provisional map. In total,
eight provisional maps were created to explore potential relations and themes. The
eighth and final thematic map is presented in Table 3.
Once the final provisional thematic map was created, the first author reread all of
the original transcripts to be sure that the potential themes represented the original
data. While reading, she looked for additional data as well as contradictory evidence.
Next, she grouped codes together in NVivo under their identified potential themes.
She then reread all of the data extracts for each potential theme, recoded when nec-
essary, and confirmed that each theme was supported by the data and unique from
other potential themes. At this point, each theme was defined for the story it tells
(Braun & Clarke, 2006), and the second author was provided with the original tran-
scripts and codebook. The second author coded all 10 transcripts, and the two authors
met to discuss the second author’s interpretations and questions. The two coders had
94% coding agreement.
le arnin g for s tu d ents exp eriencin g adversit y an d t rau ma • 437

Table 3. Final Themes with Initial Codes

Final Theme Sample Initial Inductive Codes

Prioritize relationships with and between students
Allocate time to teach self-regulation and
social skills
Provide and advocate for academic, social, and
emotional supports
Practice cultural humility and responsiveness
Strive to ally with parents
Engage in ongoing learning and reflection
Building trust between teacher and students
Classroom community
Empower, support students
Love and stability
Meeting basic needs—snack, safety
“Find him a friend”
Adjusting priorities
Prioritizing social-emotional needs
Providing normative childhood experiences—
supervised play
Teaching and modeling self-regulation
Teaching calming skills students can apply in other
settings
Break space, safe space
Creating supports—social scripts, behavior plans, etc.
Enlisting colleagues to help meet student needs
“Going the extra mile”
Holding high expectations
Predictability, schedule
Using proximity as a support
Giving choice
Affirming and including identities
Analyzing curriculum for bias
Challenging oppressive narratives
Standing up against disparate treatment
Equity curriculum
Explaining oppression to students as developmentally
appropriate
Recognizing own identity and impact on students/
families
Student strengths and resilience
Using identity to build trust and connection
Very intentional use of language
Empowering parents
Partnering with parents
Recognizing competing demands on parents’ time
Recognizing parents’ experiences of school
Relationships with families
Implementing changes
Ongoing learning
Ongoing reflection
Responding to organic student desires
Seeking support, suggestions from colleagues
Self-selected training

Measures to Increase Validity

Once the confirmed thematic map was created, member checks were completed with
two participants to verify the findings and continue the co-construction of knowl-
edge generated by this study. The participants, who had each expressed interest in
participating in a member check at the end of their interview, were provided with a
two-page summary of the themes, supporting evidence, and tensions (discussed be-
low). After reviewing the document, each participant engaged in a 15–20 minute
438 • the elementary scho ol j ournal m a r ch 2 02 1

phone call with the first author to share their reactions to and interpretations of
the findings. The two participants felt the themes represented their actions well
and did not omit any important parts of their practice that related to the research
question. These two participants were given a $10 gift card in gratitude for their time.
In addition to member checks, we took several other steps to increase the validity
of this study. The first author maintained an audit trail of memos throughout the
coding and analysis phase to document coding decisions, descriptions and short-
comings of each new thematic map, and the rationale for each reorganization of
the data. Both authors also explicitly searched for contradictory evidence in the data,
which resulted in documenting the “tensions” that teachers described. These were
examples of teachers describing practices that were accompanied by difficulties, di-
lemmas, or conflicts and will be discussed further in the findings. We include many
participant quotes in our Findings section to remain close to the data and to allow the
participants to describe their practices themselves. Finally, we explored the salience
of each theme across participants, recording if each participant discussed the theme
at all and/or in depth (which we defined as providing three or more examples that fit
the theme). Because participants were not explicitly asked about each of these themes
but rather asked broadly what they do to support students experiencing adversity and
trauma, we are confident that these themes represent the participants’ organic prac-
tices to support the learning of students who have experienced adversity and trauma.

Findings
Participants reported a wide range of adverse and traumatic circumstances experi-
enced by their students, which are summarized in Table 4. Although each teacher
spoke of their practices in relation to their specific students or classrooms, six themes
emerged across the interviews. To promote learning for students experiencing adver-
sity and trauma, teachers prioritize relationships with and between students; allocate
time to teach self-regulation and social skills; provide and advocate for academic, so-
cial, and emotional supports; practice cultural humility and responsiveness; strive to

Table 4. Range of Adversity That Participants Reported Responding To

Type of Adversity Teacher Examples

Exposure to violence Students witnessing interpersonal violence (e.g., restraining orders);

and neglect students witnessing community violence
Loss of important Students experiencing traumatic loss, including parental death due to
relationships overdose, homicide, or suicide; or parental incarceration
Uncertain living Students placed in foster care; students residing in overcrowded
environments homes (e.g., 10 people living in a one-bedroom apartment); students
relocating due to natural disasters (e.g., moving to the continental
United States due to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico)
Stressors in the Traumatic immigration and asylum-seeking experiences, including
family system family separation, ongoing uncertainty about immigration status,
economic hardship, or children taking on adult roles (e.g., second
graders regularly caring for younger siblings)
Compromised connection Underfunded schools, school lockdown and active shooter drills, lack
or engagement in school of after-school programming (due to funding cuts)
Identity-based oppression Discrimination based on race/ethnicity, language, and/or gender identity
le arnin g for stu de nts e xpe rie ncing a dversit y an d t raum a • 439

ally with parents; and engage in ongoing learning and reflection. The salience of these
themes is shown in Figure 1, and each is described in detail below.
Across interviews, all 10 teachers also named sources of tension (i.e., difficulties,
dilemmas, or conflicts) in doing this work. The tensions were apparent in all six
themes, and tensions specific to each theme are included below. Teachers communi-
cated varied levels of distress in response to these tensions, with some accepting the
circumstances as they were (typically those with the longest teaching tenure) and
others describing that they were not sure how they were going to continue to navigate
the stress they experienced from this work. Five of the 10 teachers expressed that
teaching may not be a sustainable career because of the emotional toll the work
was taking on them. Teachers described losing sleep, mental health concerns (e.g.,
depression, anxiety), physical exhaustion, and attending therapy to cope with their
distress. Nonetheless, all teachers were committed to promoting the learning of their
students and provided many examples of how they do so.

Prioritize Relationships with and between Students

Teachers repeatedly spoke about building trusting and caring relationships with
their students, particularly those experiencing adversity and trauma. Teachers em-
phasized the critical nature of their relationships with each individual student as well
as the importance of building a classroom community. Mrs. Palmer reflected, “Hon-
estly it is making, building that relationship and letting them know that they can trust
you. I mean that’s all . . . that’s what it comes down to.” Participants felt that these
relationships were crucial to students’ ability to learn, particularly for students expe-
riencing adversity and trauma. Ms. Collins described, “If I can’t reach my kids, then I
can’t do my job. So, it’s really honestly my job to reach them, for them to feel safe and
supported, that they can trust me before I really can do any teaching.” Mrs. Gordon
worked on these relationships by giving extra attention to her students experiencing
adversity and trauma. She said, “I think meeting those emotional needs has to come
before academics . . . I want them to be happy, feel good about coming to school.”
Teachers also described the importance of classroom community. Teachers felt
that their classroom communities allowed students to feel calm, safe, and accepted

Figure 1. Salience of themes across interviews.

440 • the elementary scho ol j ournal m a r ch 2 02 1

throughout the school day, which was critical to their learning. Classroom commu-
nity allowed students to build relationships with their peers and be part of something
larger than themselves. Miss Owens explained, “[My] kids don’t have that trusting
relationship at home sometimes. So, I need them to have it here so that we can func-
tion as a large, slightly chaotic, family.” Mr. Allen described, “We know each other
very well and we know who we are as a community.” He explained that he has created
a culture where students can share that they are having a bad day with the class.
Though they do not share details, other students are gentler and more accepting if
the student needs some space before they are ready to engage and learn. Ms. Collins
discussed the importance of creating a classroom community in the context of hav-
ing several English-language learners (ELLs) in her classroom. She explained, “We’ve
really highlighted how everyone’s working on something different and some kids are
working on basic academics, and other kids are working on language, and other kids
are working on ‘what do you do with all the mad?’ You know, and really praising
when kids do things the right way.”
One of the tensions that arose from the practice of building relationships was bal-
ancing the amount of attention paid to individual students. Mrs. Gordon described
how other students get jealous of the attention she gives to the students she knows are
experiencing adversity or trauma. Although she continued to provide the additional
attention, she was uncertain of how to navigate this jealousy with her other students.
She also seemed unsure of how to justify her actions despite feeling that they re-
mained critical.

Allocate Time to Teach Self-Regulation and Social Skills

The teachers in this study also described allocating time in the school day to teach
self-regulation (i.e., regulating physical and emotional needs to “achieve the pre-
ferred state of alertness for the given situation”; Kuypers, 2011, p. 14). They used a va-
riety of strategies to do so, including mindfulness exercises, yoga, movement breaks,
and quiet time. Although some school administrators requested time be used in this
way, many of the teachers were allocating additional time to these activities because
they had observed the value for their students. Teachers often supplemented curric-
ulum they had been provided with additional activities. To practice feeling calm and
centered, Mrs. Palmer’s class began each of its Morning Meetings (Kriete & Davis,
2014) by listening to a singing bowl until the sound faded. She often instructed her
students to silently count the doorways or their steps while walking through the hall-
way to practice being present. Multiple participants described teaching students to
identify emotions and stress responses in their bodies. Miss West regularly modeled
her own emotional regulation strategies for her students. She described asking her stu-
dents, “Who noticed Miss West take a deep breath? Why do you think Miss West had
to take a deep breath?” Ms. Taylor embedded yoga practices and breathing throughout
the school day. She reflected, “It’s something I think they’ll always remember, that
somebody taught me how to deal with stress somewhere along the line, and hopefully
they keep using it. And if they don’t use yoga, at least they’re breathing.” Ms. Estrada’s
students were able to articulate the benefits of their class mindfulness practices. She
shared, “You can practice mindfulness with kids for a minute and you ask them, ‘OK,
lea rn i ng for stu de nts e xpe rie ncing a dversit y and t raum a • 441

so why do we do this?’ and they just know! They know that it supports their hearts,
supports their concentration, it makes them feel peaceful.”
Similarly, teachers described dedicating time to social skills instruction, teaching
students skills that are foundational to healthy relationships within and beyond the
classroom. Ms. Collins chose to front-load the Second Step social skills curriculum
(Low et al., 2015) the previous school year, aiming to equip students with skills and
language to solve social conflicts much earlier in the school year. Miss Owens pro-
vided structured play opportunities on Friday afternoons because her students often
lacked adult support with developing age-appropriate play skills. She explained,
“They don’t get a lot of play dates and if you do get a play date, no one is there to
help with the social aspect of it: taking turns, and asking for things, using manners
and getting physical when someone doesn’t do something that you like. So, I have
a choice time for them so they can make and practice those skills.”
Mr. Allen was trained in both Open Circle (Hennessey, 2007) and Responsive
Classroom (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2014) and has a dedicated time each week for a
classroom circle. He described drawing on different aspects of the two programs
to engage students as “leaders in solving the problems in [the classroom].”
Across these examples, teachers described how allocating time to teach self-regulation
and social skills to their students promoted learning for their students experiencing
adversity and trauma. Teachers described that without this time and instruction, some
students would not be able to access learning the remainder of the school day. Some,
however, feared that their administrators would question the amount of time they are
allocating to these activities.

Provide and Advocate for Academic, Social, and Emotional Supports

Teachers described many academic, social, and emotional supports they embed or
create for students experiencing adversity and trauma. Some of these supports re-
mained consistent from school year to school year, whereas others were generated
in response to specific situations. Teachers drew on a long list of supports that they
knew about and implemented as they saw fit.
Many teachers reported having a “break station” in their classrooms. These were
quiet spaces or desks with several supports for self-regulation (e.g., coloring, drawing,
sensory objects, emotion cards) that students could access as needed. Teachers high-
lighted the open access students had to this space, its nonpunitive nature, and stu-
dents’ ability to identify when they truly needed the space and when they did not.
Ms. Perry expressed, “[It] goes again with teaching kids mindfulness of their own
well-being and how they can take action to improve it . . . um, independently.” Teach-
ers also created behavior charts, social scripts, and class-wide incentive plans intended
to promote students’ social and emotional success. Mr. Williams described the im-
portance of employing good teaching practices and remaining curious about how to
best support students’ learning. He shared, “Some kids come with different accom-
modations, and some things are good teaching practices, and other things you need to
go out of your way to make sure that you ask questions and you do what’s best for the
child to learn.”
442 • t h e el e m e n ta ry sc h o o l j o u r na l m a r c h 2 02 1

Teachers also described many intangible supports they provide: consistent and
predictable routines, student choice throughout the day, and seating proximity to
the teacher for regular check-ins. Mr. Allen described the value of consistent routines
and procedures in his classroom: “Most students have a sense of relief that they know
what they should be doing, where they should be, and how we transition.” Mrs. Palm-
er’s experience has led her to conclude how powerful choice can be for students ex-
periencing adversity and trauma. She said, “The main thing that I’ve come up with is
that it’s all about choice. Giving them a safe place to be, but never backing them into a
corner. Giving them some options.” Mrs. Gordon has a student desk adjacent to her
own every year that she offers to students who are conveying that they would appre-
ciate additional adult nurturing. She explained, “They like it, they like just being that
close, that close proximity of person to person.”
Teachers also advocated for additional school-based supports for their students.
Though the available personnel at each school varied, teachers collectively spoke of
reaching out to their school adjustment counselor, social worker, behaviorist, and
psychologist to connect students with additional emotional and/or behavioral sup-
port. Teachers also referred students to instructional support teams, consulted with
reading or writing specialists, or reconvened individualized education program teams
to seek additional academic support. Mrs. Palmer even engaged the cafeteria staff to
guide a student through the daily lunch routine, resulting in reduced anxiety and
greater success for the student. Finally, when necessary school-based supports were
not available, teachers advocated to their administrators for additional supports for
these students.
Tensions associated with this advocacy work included inadequate mental health
and academic resources, conflicting mindsets about the roles and responsibilities of
the school, and disagreements among staff about effective interventions to imple-
ment. Teachers working in schools with few resources linked this to structural in-
equalities, and those in well-resourced schools recognized the privilege of accessing
these resources. However, teachers expected the resources that were available to be
efficient and effective and were frustrated when this was not the case. For example,
when the teachers perceived that the available mental health professionals were not
providing adequate supports to students, they became very frustrated. Ms. Collins
described, “That is the problem at my school. My school psychologist doesn’t think
it’s her job to support these kids. And I find more often than not, they fall through the
cracks because I ask for support and help until I’m blue in the face.”

Practice Cultural Humility and Responsiveness

Participants described many ways that they practice cultural humility and respon-
siveness to promote learning for students. Cultural humility (Tervalon & Murray-
García, 1998) refers to individuals’ commitments to (a) lifelong learning and self-
reflection, (b) recognition and challenge of power imbalances, and (c) institutional
accountability. Cultural responsiveness is the use of “cultural knowledge, prior ex-
periences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to
make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them” (Gay, 2018, p. 36).
Teachers included their students’ identities in the curriculum, analyzed curriculum
lea rn i ng for stu de nts e xpe rie ncing a dversit y a nd t raum a • 443

for bias, gave students opportunities to document and share their identities with
classmates, defended students against bias, and continually highlighted the strengths
and resilience of each student. Teachers also reflected on their own cultural identities
and how these may affect their relationships with students and families. Collectively,
the teachers spoke of humility and responsiveness to students’ race, ethnicity, lan-
guage, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, citizenship status, (dis)ability, and
learning styles. Ms. Estrada articulated, “You know we are, especially children, are so
resilient and are so . . . are so complex, the ways that . . . you know, I’m not just teach-
ing this child—this one identity of this child. I’m teaching the whole child: their trauma,
their history, what they come with, last year’s learning, the previous year’s learning.
So, I feel like there has to be this understanding and this underlying compassion when
it comes to . . . to who we have in front of us.”
Teachers recognized the importance of analyzing the messages embedded in the
curriculum they taught, books they read, and language they used. The teachers knew
that curriculum and picture books often represent one point of view that students
may accept as fact. They strived to include books in their classroom libraries and in-
struction that reflected the racial, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds of their stu-
dents. They also closely considered the narratives of these stories. Ms. Perry dedicated
energy to “changing the narrative, providing different texts that kids are using, pro-
viding different points of view.” Teachers spoke about the engagement and excite-
ment that students, particularly those from minority backgrounds, displayed when
they saw their own identities in the curriculum.
Miss Owens spoke of being very intentional about the messaging and language she
uses in her classroom. She has picture labels on all of the classroom materials. In ad-
dition to having pictures that represent a variety of races and ethnicities, she has
some that cannot be clearly identified as male or female. She was recently creating
a label for books in the classroom library about family. She described, “When you
search family online, it’s always a male, a female, and however many kids. And so,
I found one image that had nonbinary—like you don’t know what they are—people.
And I was like, this is perfect. I need this to be my family picture because it’s impor-
tant to me that it’s not a stereotypical, heterosexual family.”
In addition to asking her second-grade students what pronouns they would like to
be addressed by at the beginning of the school year, she does not use the language of
“boys and girls” to address her students. Instead, she says “our friends” or “Class-
room 2A” to avoid perpetuating a gender binary. Miss Owens did not think her stu-
dents noticed but hoped that she was planting seeds that may benefit her students
later in their lives.
Teachers also spoke about allowing students to be their whole selves. Multiple
teachers shared examples of students questioning their gender identities. Ms. Estrada
shared, “There was understanding that I accepted him as, as he was or as he was dem-
onstrating. So, he was very comfortable being his feminine self, his full self. And what
would it be like if I didn’t demonstrate that to him, right? If he couldn’t be himself?”
Based on her work in a school-based book group, Mrs. Palmer planned to incorpo-
rate activities on identity into her classroom the upcoming year. These included iden-
tity webs, stories of students’ names, and poems about where they were from. These
activities aimed to have students name, honor, and reflect on their own identities and
learn about and affirm the identities of others.
444 • the e le me ntary scho o l jo ur nal ma rc h 2 02 1

Importantly, teachers also recognized themselves as cultural beings. They knew

that students and families may feel connected to or alienated from them based on
shared or divergent backgrounds. Teachers were committed to ongoing learning
about their students’ backgrounds and cultural experiences as well as their own blind
spots. Mr. Allen spoke about his school’s implementation of an equity curriculum.
He explained, “[First,] we talked about our own experiences with racism and all those
isms. And then we debriefed and we talked about, ‘OK, we know this as adults. How
can we teach this in an age-appropriate manner with students?’ ”
Finally, Mr. Williams intervened when some of his Black students were experienc-
ing biased discipline practices in the school cafeteria. When the students told
Mr. Williams what was happening, he asked them to behave in the same way the next
day and assured them that he would look into it. After observing the students being
screamed at for behavior that many White students in the line were also exhibiting
but not disciplined for, Mr. Williams raised the concern to the cafeteria staff and vice
principal. He described, “The message you’re sending these boys is they’re the prob-
lem and that they need to fix it. And if they don’t fix it fast, then they’re going to be in
trouble.” Mr. Williams shared that the boys recognized that they were being treated
differently although being told they should not be. Mr. Williams’s actions carried
considerable risk for himself, but he explained that his own childhood experiences
of not feeling understood by his White teachers compelled him to advocate for these
students.
Teachers expressed varying levels of comfort with practicing cultural humility and
responsiveness. Ms. Taylor sought help in supporting a transgender student but felt
that no one in her school could guide her. Instead, she found useful information on
social media support groups intended for parents of transgender children. Mr. Wil-
liams expressed feeling more confident being responsive to students’ race than dis-
ability, whereas Mrs. Gordon and Ms. Collins conveyed the opposite. Miss West re-
lated to some of her students through her personal experience of growing up in foster
care, but as a White teacher working entirely with students of color, she wanted more
training on cultural responsiveness. In addition, teachers often selected books and an-
alyzed curriculum on their own. They expressed a desire to do this work with their
colleagues and knew that opportunities to collaborate would increase their skills, con-
fidence, and capacity to engage in this work. However, without shared time to do
so, the teachers often felt isolated in their work and, at times, uncertain of their
decisions.

Strive to Ally with Parents

Teachers repeatedly shared actions that described how they strive to ally with par-
ents. The teachers’ actions clustered into three types of alliances: regularly collabo-
rating with parents to support students experiencing adversity and trauma, reaching
out to engage parents who might have the time and energy to be involved, and un-
derstanding why parents may not be involved in school.
Teachers spoke of regularly collaborating with parents to best support students at
school and home. Mrs. Gordon spoke about how much more effective she felt sup-
porting students experiencing adversity or trauma when she was in regular commu-
nication with a parent.
lea rn i ng for stu de nts e xpe rie ncing a dversit y a nd t raum a • 445

Mr. Williams shared, “I found in my years of teaching that when the parents are
comfortable enough to share things with me, it helps me understand the students a
lot better and understand what they’re going through.” He described one student ex-
periencing significant distress about their own Islamic identity and their relatives ex-
periencing the Syrian Civil War. The student coped by hyperfocusing on their work,
and Mr. Williams shared how an open and ongoing dialogue with the student’s par-
ents helped them all to more effectively support the student. Teachers were grateful
for these opportunities to partner with parents.
Some teachers also described practices intended to engage parents. Ms. Collins
spoke of a weekly email she sent to parents with curriculum updates, photos of the
students, and discussion points for families. She explained, “I get great responses back
and I’ve gotten a lot more responses from families about like ‘so these are things that
we’ve been trying’ and then they use that language that I use.” Ms. Collins also spoke
about having documents translated for families as a regular part of her practice and
offering an additional midyear conference, which could take the form of a meeting,
phone call, or note about their student’s progress. Ms. Collins shared a story of sending
home a two-page translated note to a mother in January. At April conferences, “Her
mom came in with 20 questions and asked all these amazing things. This mom took
what I said, worked with her kid, and then was like ‘how do you see her here now?’
with what is going on. This is what I tried. And this mom doesn’t speak English.
And her kid grew two reading levels in a year because of things that I told her in there.”
Finally, multiple teachers demonstrated an empathetic understanding of why par-
ents may not be as involved with school. Miss Owens described, “A lot of our fam-
ilies, they don’t have positive experiences in school, so schools make them super anx-
ious and they don’t like them.” She went on to describe the competing demands of
jobs, childcare, and helping neighbors with childcare. She concluded, “So it’s just like
there’s so many oppressive things that make it so they can’t come for family engage-
ment, which is sad.” Ms. Perry described challenging a colleague’s judgmental view of
a mom who had not visited the school though her son was struggling. Ms. Perry started
by describing the time out of work and three to four buses the mom would need to take
to visit. When the colleague questioned the mom’s decision to send the student to a
school farther from her home, Ms. Perry responded, “Wouldn’t you want to send your
kid to a school that has a better reputation? And the schools in her neighborhood
don’t.” Here, Ms. Perry partnered with the mom rather than placating her colleague.
Miss West and Miss Owens shared similar tensions in striving to ally with parents.
Miss West spoke about the negative messages parents shared with their young chil-
dren about school. She recognized that these were based on their own difficult expe-
riences with school but also felt that these messages worked in opposition to her ef-
forts to invest students in their education. Many parents of Miss Owens’s students
had strong religious beliefs against LGBTQ1 identities. She explained, “So stuff re-
garding sexual orientation is not really popular in the community. They have really
strong views against it.” Miss Owens described feeling conflicted between acknowl-
edging a variety of identities, providing a diverse classroom library, respecting the par-
ents’ beliefs, and knowing it was not developmentally appropriate for students to dis-
agree with their parents in second grade. She also expressed that tension arose when
parents had different beliefs about students’ disabilities. In these cases, parents were
suggesting physical punishment for students’ inattentive or hyperactive behaviors,
446 • t h e el e m e n ta ry sc h o o l j o u r na l m a r c h 2 02 1

which neither she nor the school would implement. In these examples, Miss West
and Miss Owens recognized the cultural norms and beliefs of their students’ parents
and tried to hold those in balance with their own values.

Engage in Ongoing Learning and Reflection

Across interviews, teachers spoke about engaging in ongoing learning and reflec-
tion. Ongoing learning was often self-selected professional development. Teachers
attended professional conferences, sought out school or district workshops focused
on social-emotional learning or trauma when choices were given, attended paid after-
school trainings, joined voluntary book groups, and personally researched or read
books on the topics. Ms. Perry described, “I think just like as an educator continuing
to stay educated myself and push myself to think of things differently.” Miss West
spoke about continuing to learn about her students’ backgrounds and experiences.
In describing the number of undocumented students at her school, she explained,
“It’s educated me a lot, too, because a lot of kids are undocumented in ways I didn’t
realize it could happen.”
Teachers also shared stories that exhibited their ongoing reflection on their teach-
ing practices. Ms. Taylor shared, “So, after my first yoga class, I was like, ‘I wonder if
this would work?’” After she introduced yoga in her classroom, the students begged
for more. She described, “And then, I just incorporated it into the day. We did it for
the morning and we did it for dismissal and then it just became a tradition. Now, I do
it all the time.” Her students now lead the morning practice and independently use
small pieces of the practice (e.g., toe taps or neck rolls) to keep themselves regulated
while sitting on the carpet or working at their desks. Ms. Taylor reflected, “It’s
changed my teaching career.”
Finally, teachers described implementing manageable changes to their practice
each year that they believed would promote learning for their students. Knowing that
it would be overwhelming to implement many changes, they chose smaller shifts that
would enhance their instruction and build on one another each year. Miss Owens
explained, “I’ve already got the yoga part down, and if I start from the beginning
of the year, it should go a little bit smoother. So, I’m thinking the cool down or quiet
time boxes. I think that’s a really perfect thing to do next year.” Teachers recognized
that small changes could have significant impacts and that cumulative small changes
would lead to substantial shifts in their classrooms over time.
Again, however, teachers often did this work on their own time and over the sum-
mer. They also were likely to do this alone or with a few colleagues who were inter-
ested, but rarely with a large group of their coworkers.

Discussion
Although widespread attention has been given to the prevalence and impacts of
childhood experiences of trauma (Bethell et al., 2017; Perry & Pollard, 1998), far less
attention has been given to training teachers in how to promote learning with these
students. Though trauma-informed school approaches have been developed, imple-
mentation remains very limited. Consequently, this study sought to understand how
le arnin g for stu d ents exp eriencin g adversit y an d t rau ma • 447

teachers are promoting learning for their students experiencing adversity and trauma
despite their lack of training in how to do so. Two important implications emerge
from this study: (a) teachers are engaging in deliberate and strategic efforts to support
students that both complement and extend conceptions of trauma-informed schools
and (b) this work is challenging, necessitating increased support and training.

Teachers’ Practices Affirm and Expand “Best Practices”

Though none of the teachers participated in school-wide trauma-informed prac-
tices, the teachers described many actions they take to promote learning for their stu-
dents experiencing adversity and trauma. They prioritized relationships with and be-
tween students; allocated time to teach self-regulation and social skills; provided and
advocated for academic, social, and emotional supports; practiced cultural humility
and responsiveness; strove to ally with parents; and engaged in ongoing learning and re-
flection. These practices are aligned with recommended practices in the trauma-informed
schools literature, including fostering relationships and environments in which students
feel safe and supported, providing instructional and noninstructional supports, collab-
orating with parents and colleagues, and engaging in ongoing learning and reflection
(e.g., Cole et al., 2013; Dorado et al., 2016).
The teachers in this study also highlighted the crucial possibilities of practices that
are not currently preeminent in existing trauma-informed literature, such as practic-
ing cultural humility and responsiveness for their students who are experiencing ad-
versity and trauma. Only two (Dorado et al., 2016; McIntyre et al., 2019) of the five
published school-wide trauma-informed approaches currently emphasize the im-
portance of cultural humility (Tervalon & Murray-García, 1998) and responsiveness
(Gay, 2018). Dorado et al. (2016) describe the importance of these practices in pro-
moting equity and empowerment and disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline for
African American/Black and Latino students. In the current study, eight of the 10 par-
ticipants provided in-depth descriptions of how they actively promoted learning
by practicing cultural humility and responsiveness. The participants described how
they included students’ identities in the curriculum, afforded students opportunities
to learn about their own and others’ identities, and analyzed curriculum for bias.
Critically, teachers also recognized themselves as cultural beings in the classroom,
named how this affected their relationships with students and families, and contin-
ued to learn about their students’ backgrounds and experiences while assessing their
own blind spots. In our current sociopolitical context of growing White nationalism,
xenophobia, increased hate crimes, and intensified deportation efforts (American
Psychological Association, 2018), these actions are essential. Across these interviews,
teachers spoke about the importance of these actions although also expressing a de-
sire for formal training in these practices. With Dorado et al.’s (2016) and McIntyre
et al.’s (2019) work as a model, those who lead and develop trauma-informed train-
ings should consider integrating cultural humility and responsiveness into their
approaches.
It is important to note that authors of trauma-informed practices recognize that
the suggested supports will benefit all students, not only those with experiences of
trauma (e.g., Cole et al., 2013). Therefore, it is recommended that these supports are
implemented class- and school-wide. It is not necessary to know the trauma history
448 • the elementary scho ol j ournal m a r ch 2 02 1

of each student. However, authors also note that without these practices, students who
have experienced trauma are very likely to struggle academically (e.g., Craig, 2016).
For example, incorporating yoga or breathing exercises into the classroom likely sup-
ports all students’ ability to focus on learning. Yet, those students who have experi-
enced trauma may be unable to regulate emotions or intrusive thoughts without
these scheduled activities and brief, explicit reminders to support them in doing
so. Although trauma-informed teaching practices align with others’ work on effec-
tive teaching (e.g., high-leverage teaching practices; Ball & Forzani, 2010), trauma-
informed practices are identified for their specific responsiveness to the impacts of
trauma on the developing brain and are not fully captured in other models of effec-
tive teaching.

Trauma-Informed Training and Support Is Warranted

Despite participants’ active and voluntary engagement in practices that promote
learning for students who have experienced trauma, all of the teachers in our sample
described tensions that arose when engaging in these practices. These tensions often
reflected their feelings of isolation and a lack of school-wide supports for their stu-
dents experiencing adversity and trauma. Five of the 10 participants expressed that
they may leave the profession of teaching because of the emotional toll the work was
taking on them. Participants described losing sleep, mental health concerns (e.g., de-
pression, anxiety), and physical exhaustion due to their work, which may be signs of
secondary traumatic stress (STS) and/or burnout. Unaddressed, STS and burnout can
lead to reduced work performance, challenges in interpersonal relationships, and leav-
ing the profession (Lawson et al., 2019). Teaching shortages have been attributed to
teachers frequently leaving the profession rather than a lack of qualified candidates
entering the profession (Ingersoll, 2001). One in six teachers currently leaves the pro-
fession in their first 5 years in the career (Gray et al., 2015). Consequently, measures to
retain teachers in the field and that prevent burnout are critical.
Previous research (Caringi et al., 2015) has suggested that teachers benefit from
school-wide, team-based collaborative program development to cope with STS symp-
toms. Professional development trainings and psychoeducation on STS—a key facet
of trauma-informed school training—can help educators to recognize and under-
stand the symptoms of STS, a first step to reversing the impact (Hydon et al., 2015;
Lawson et al., 2019; National Child Traumatic Stress Network [NCTSN], 2011). In ad-
dition, shared conversations about STS and work-related stress and the development
of self-care techniques have been found to buffer against the negative effects of STS
(Caringi et al., 2015). The present study suggests that increased teacher support and
cohesion within schools, including school-wide implementation of trauma-informed
practices, could reduce the tensions that teachers are experiencing. In turn, this in-
creased support and cohesion may retain highly skilled and dedicated teachers who
are otherwise at risk for leaving the profession.
As a purposeful sample, the teachers in this study likely represent those who are
most invested in and confident working with students experiencing adversity and
trauma. Research consistently finds that teachers feel that trauma affects their stu-
dents’ performance in school, but they do not feel they have the skills, knowledge,
l e a r n in g f o r st u de nts e xpe ri e n c i ng adve rs i t y a n d t r aum a • 449

and resources to meet their students’ needs (Blitz et al., 2016; Bolleboina et al., 2017).
Preservice and in-service training is greatly needed to develop the skills of all educa-
tors working with students experiencing adversity and trauma. Although the teachers
in the current study are implementing many of the best practices of trauma-informed
teaching, they too expressed doubts about their abilities and desired comprehensive
and school-wide training in these practices. School-wide trainings would increase all
educators’ capacities to promote learning for their students. Rather than having iso-
lated teachers who are confident and skilled in these practices, students would benefit
from the consistent and comprehensive support that school-wide trauma-informed
practices could provide over the course of their educational careers.
In Massachusetts, the state in which these teachers work, the Safe and Supportive
Schools Grant Program was approved by the Massachusetts legislature in fiscal year
2014 to provide state funding for a limited number of schools to become trauma in-
formed (Cole et al., 2013). Maintaining and strengthening this grant program is a
significant opportunity to develop trauma-informed schools in Massachusetts. State
policy recommendations have been developed to assist state officials in drafting and
revising legislation supporting trauma-informed schools (see Harper & Temkin,
2019). In addition to Massachusetts’s efforts, California, Pennsylvania, Washington,
and Wisconsin have been recognized for their efforts to create legislation supporting
trauma-informed schools (Craig, 2016).
Finally, we believe it is worth noting that teachers, even as a collaborative school
effort, cannot provide all the support needed for students who have experienced se-
vere trauma. Students may need intervention from trained social workers, psychol-
ogists, and other professionals whose training and expertise provides different types
of supports than those teachers are able to provide. Although our data provide evi-
dence of the important role of teachers in responding to trauma and the value of
training teachers in trauma responsiveness, we recognize the need for collaboration
across a variety of professionals in providing students with the supports they need to
heal and succeed despite their experiences of trauma.

Limitations and Future Directions

Although the work of the teachers in this study is compelling, the study also has
limitations. As a small purposeful sample, the findings are not intended to be gener-
alized across all elementary school teachers but instead represent the actions of these
10 teachers who are highly committed to supporting their students who have expe-
rienced adversity and trauma. Although the results of this study are encouraging,
these teachers were those who were willing to talk to us about the subject and likely
represent the best-case scenario for students. In addition, this study relies on teach-
ers’ perceptions of what supports are effective for their students experiencing adver-
sity and trauma. A critical next step is to seek insight from the students themselves, as
is developmentally appropriate, as well as their parents/caregivers. Finally, linking
these practices to student mental health and achievement data would verify their value
in classrooms.
Of course, as was the case in this study, there are numerous books (e.g., Craig,
2016; Romero et al., 2019) and stand-alone resources (NCTSN, 2008, 2017) that teach-
ers find valuable. However, these cannot take the place of coordinated school-wide
450 • the elementary scho ol j ournal m a r ch 2 02 1

trainings that can effectively prepare the workforce to support the academic needs of
students who have experienced trauma.
Future research should seek out the voices of teachers who have been trained in
trauma-informed practices, both in preservice training and professional develop-
ment opportunities. Comparing the narratives of those who have and have not been
formally trained could provide important insight into the value of these trainings and
school-wide implementation for both students and educators. Administrators may
also have compelling perspectives about the range of educators and practices they
observe within their school buildings. Administrators’ insights on classroom assign-
ments for students experiencing significant adversity and trauma could be important
to explore, with specific attention to if and why administrators place students with cer-
tain classroom teachers in their buildings. This could again highlight the important
actions of these teachers as well as the need for more systematic training on trauma
for educators.

Conclusion
Childhood adversity and trauma have significant impacts on students’ well-being
and academic success, necessitating the use of trauma-informed practices in class-
rooms to promote learning for such students. Although educators are taking crea-
tive and important steps to enact such practices in their classrooms, comprehensive,
school-wide training on trauma-informed practices is crucial for both teacher and
student success. As the teachers in this study highlight, intentional teacher actions
that prioritize the learning of students experiencing adversity and trauma are critical
for the success and well-being of these students. Yet these teachers also highlight the
difficulties of doing this work alone. Trauma-informed trainings are key to strength-
ening and extending the practices of teachers in their individual classrooms, so that
entire school communities benefit: not only improving outcomes for students, but
also improving teacher well-being and retention. Despite the prevalence of childhood
trauma among students today, working together—child by child, family by family,
and school by school—we can transform our communities.

Appendix
Semistructured Interview Protocol

1. Could you start by sharing a bit about your teaching background and career thus far?
2. Can you speak about any training have you received, either in your preservice pro-
gram or while you have been teaching, on responding to the needs of students expe-
riencing trauma?
3. How have you been trained to address difference across race, class, sexual orientation,
disability, citizenship status, or other identity elements with students?
4. How do you understand adversity, trauma, and/or systems of oppression that your
students may experience?
5. Can you provide examples of actions you have taken to foster wellness and social jus-
tice for one or more of your students facing trauma or systems of oppression?
lea rn i ng for stu de nts e xpe rie ncing a dversit y and t raum a • 451

6. How has the recent media and political attention to gun violence in schools or im-
migration policy affected your classroom?
7. While teaching students who are experiencing significant levels of trauma, how do
you take care of yourself? What supports are helpful or do you feel would be helpful?
8. Is there anything that you would like to add?

Note
Jessica B. Koslouski is a doctoral candidate in applied human development at Boston University;
Kristabel Stark is a doctoral student in special education at Boston University. Correspondence
may be sent to Jessica B. Koslouski at jkos@bu.edu.

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