Beyond Stress, Coping, and Resilience: Exploring Organizational Support for Teachers' Wellness Practice and Well-Being

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Teachers serve as key liaisons to student wellness services and are often responsible for implementing trauma-informed interventions that promote students’ affective well-being. Yet teachers frequently feel unprepared, overwhelmed, and ineffective in this practice, resulting at times in heightened levels of stress and emotional exhaustion. In this session, we present four empirical papers focused on: (1) school working conditions that evoke teachers’ trauma-exposure responses, (2) teachers’ perceptions on the competing demands of practice, (3) teachers’ preparation and professional learning experiences on their competency to address student wellness needs and trauma-informed responses, and (4) a professional development tool designed to evaluate staff well-being, school climate, and trauma-informed care. This session addresses implications for research, policy and practice in teacher education and learning.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Stress, Coping, and Resilience

Chair

• R. Jason Lynch, Appalachian State University

Papers

• A Comparative Analysis of COVID-19 Trauma Exposure Responses - R. Jason Lynch, Appalachian State University

• How Teachers’ Competing Demands of Practice Inform Their Well-Being - Elizabeth F. Levine-Brown, George Mason University; Megan C. Sharkey, George Mason University; Naomi Brown, George Mason University; Kate L. Phillippo, Loyola University Chicago

• How Preparation and Induction Experiences Inform Teachers’ Competency of Wellness Work: A Mixed-Methods Analysis - Naomi Brown, George Mason University; Elizabeth F. Levine-Brown, George Mason University; Megan C. Sharkey, George Mason University; Duhita Mahatmya, University of Iowa; Christy Suzanne Galletta Horner, Bowling Green State University; Marion Zavolas Taousakis, George Mason University; Heather Walter, George Mason University; Audra Parker, George Mason University

• The Organizational Well-Being Inventory for Schools - Kristin Scardamalia, University of Delaware

Discussant

• Elizabeth F. Levine-Brown, George Mason University