Fostering the Resilience of Homeless Children Through Emotionally Responsive Teaching

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 4:20 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Stress and Coping in Early Childhood (Table 4)

Abstract

Drawing on a qualitative study of 25 PreK-2nd Grade teachers, the overall purpose of this paper is to report on early childhood educators’ attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and self-perceived skills in supporting young homeless children (HC) in schools. Findings suggest that supporting teachers in developing emotionally responsive teaching approaches is critical to fostering teacher self-efficacy and the resilient functioning of homeless children. By illuminating the processes through which teachers make sense of children’s experiences of homelessness and their perceptions of how homelessness influences children’s’ experiences in school, these findings have important implications for the design of more effective professional development opportunities for early childhood educators.

Author

• Travis S. Wright, University of Wisconsin - Madison