A Teacher Grieving for His Student: Tensions Between Individual Grief Practices and School Bereavement Culture

• In Event: 56.080 - Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: 56.080-10 - Morale and Well-Being: Exploring the Emotional Labor of Teachers

Abstract

This paper analyzes the experience of one teacher dealing with the bereavement caused by the loss of a student. During the normal school day, a student suffered a heart attack, and the teachers, administrators, and school staff were powerless to save his life. The student’s teacher turned to narrative as a way to make meaning of his experience of his bereavement and the school's grieving practices. We explore the tensions present between individual emotional needs while teachers fulfill their role as a leader in the school. The study looks across multiple tellings of the story. The researchers found meaning-making norms surrounding the grieving process at multiple levels: (a) individual, (b) contextual-specific, (c) institutional, and (d) larger social, cultural, and historical.

Authors

• Nick Thompson, University of Georgia - Athens

• Heidi Hadley, University of Georgia - Athens