Moral Injury and Moral Traps in Teaching: Learning From the Pandemic

• In Event: COVID-19 and K–12 Teachers' Well-Being and Mental Health

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of moral trap within the field of k12 education. The authors define this concept as a systemic institutional arrangement delimiting the terms of moral action while creating demands for multiple moral obligations, many of which cannot be met within the structure. This tension results in teachers experiencing moral injury, a concept in circulation in the field of counselling that the authors apply within the field of education. Implications include a need to prepare teachers for the multiple moral demands present in the teaching profession and a need to provide greater wrap-around supports for educational equity.

Authors

• Dana Cohen Lissman, University of Oregon
  Presenting Author

• MaryJohn R. Adkins-Cartee, University of Oregon
  Presenting Author

• Jerry L. Rosiek, University of Oregon
  Presenting Author

• Shareen Springer, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author