Absorbing it All: Violence Exposure, Emotional Labor, & Teacher Coping

• In Event: Schooling and Intergenerational Mental Health

Abstract

Over the past twenty-five years, since the mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, safety concerns have continued to shape conversations in and about schools, fundamentally shifting the ways schools are structured. While sociologists have considered the ways these shifts shape students experiences and outcomes (Curran 2016; Edwards 2021; Teske 2011), few have studied the ways these forces shape the work and role of teachers. Thus, this study centers teachers by asking, how do teachers working in different school contexts experience and cope with violence in and around schools? What supports and coping strategies are most salient to teachers? How do school-level resources and organizational environments mediate these effects? Using 39 semi-structured interviews with teachers nested within a single school district in a midwestern state, I explore the ways teachers experience, make sense of and cope with violence in different school contexts. Overall, this study makes evident that teachers experience with various forms of violence are not merely one-off events, but consistent and regular parts of their roles in the classroom and on their campuses. This study highlights the ways inequities impact teachers daily practice, and in turn, the experiences of their students.

Author

• Sofia Duenas, University of Notre Dame