Echoes of Loss: Delayed Grief and Its Impact on Teacher Well-Being

• In Event: Voices of Emotional First Responders: Honoring Teacher Humanity Through Trauma and Overlapping Crises

Abstract

This paper explores how delayed grief manifests in K–12 educators following overlapping large-scale disruptions—specifically the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2025 Eaton Fires—and how this unresolved grief affects their emotional well-being and professional sustainability. Drawing on theories of grief, particularly Worden’s (2009) tasks of mourning and Kübler-Ross’s (1969) five stages of grief, the paper argues that many teachers, caught in a prolonged state of survival, are unable to begin grieving until long after the immediate crisis ends. In this liminal space, teachers suppress their emotional responses not out of denial, but necessity—tasked with maintaining academic routines, ensuring students’ emotional safety, meeting testing demands, and caring for their own families, often with minimal institutional support.

Unlike students, whose trauma has increasingly become the focus of social-emotional learning (SEL) and trauma-informed practices, teachers are rarely positioned as individuals who also carry grief. This research shifts that narrative by highlighting the emotional burden teachers silently bear. Through reflective journaling, semi-structured interviews, and critical narrative inquiry, this study captures the voices of educators who describe delayed emotional responses—numbness, guilt, irritability, and eventual mourning for the classrooms, routines, and relationships they lost. For some, grief is triggered months later by small reminders: a student asking, “Will we go back to normal?” or the empty seat of a child who moved away after the fires.

Anchored in healing-centered engagement (Ginwright, 2018) and cultural capital theory (Yosso, 2005), this paper situates teacher grief not as an individual weakness but as a response shaped by systemic conditions: underfunded schools, unrealistic expectations, and institutional neglect. Teachers are expected to “bounce back,” often without being asked how they are coping. This unacknowledged grief takes a toll—leading to emotional exhaustion, burnout, and at times, early exit from the profession. While many educators show resilience, resilience without repair is unsustainable.

The paper argues that grief, when left unprocessed, not only harms individual teachers but also affects school culture and student success. Teachers struggling emotionally often find it harder to remain present and responsive in the classroom. Delayed grief also disrupts their capacity to implement trauma-informed practices, which require emotional self-regulation, empathy, and consistency. The findings call for teacher preparation programs and school districts to recognize grief as an ongoing component of teaching in a crisis-prone world. Strategies such as embedded grief-informed training, interdisciplinary wellness partnerships, and protected time for emotional processing are essential—not as add-ons, but as integral to educational justice.

By illuminating the hidden timelines of teacher grief, this paper contributes a critical dimension to the symposium’s exploration of educator humanity. It invites educational researchers and policymakers to rethink teacher support—not just during the peak of crisis, but long after, when the real mourning begins.

Authors

• Jensine Magaly Lucas, Pepperdine University

• Ellin Avanesian, Pepperdine University

• Cristina M. Arellano, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District

• Elianna Campos, Pasadena Unified