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Understanding the Whole Teacher using the Five Awarenesses of Teaching Framework

Wed, April 7, 2:45 to 4:15pm EDT (2:45 to 4:15pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Introduction

ECE educators have long known that educating the whole-child is critical.1 This is reflected in government and school-based policies that draw upon the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole-child model (WSCC). This model places students at the center, aligning education and health sector efforts to ensure optimal child development.2,3,4
In this paper, recognizing COVID-19 presented a challenge to student-centered paradigms5 (e.g., WSCC) which locate teachers’ mental and social-emotional skills in the outer ring—as an interdependent component necessary to support student development—we argue that the pandemic abruptly forced teachers into the center with their students. COVID-19 exposed teachers to unprecedented trauma and stress,6 having profound effects socially, emotionally, and physiologically.7,8 In response, a collection of “self-care” strategies are often promoted. However, these traumatic stressors demand attention to the whole-teacher as equally important and independent actors in WSCC models; 9 trauma-informed professional development focused on supporting students may be detrimental to teacher mental health.10,11 The Five Awarenesses framework (figure 1) uses a whole-teacher lens to account for teacher SEL and mental health.12

Research Questions

We asked how the five domains of teacher awareness—awareness of self-as-teacher, learner, teaching process, interaction, context—contributed to teachers’ capacity to support student SEL and academic outcomes and offers insights into own mental health and well-being. As such, this study attends to the complex intersection of ECE policy, teaching, trauma, and mental health triggered by the pandemic.

Methods

This qualitative study employed data collected as part of a longitudinal, mixed-methods study of teachers, parents and students from 41 pre-K programs in historically-underserved NYC communities.13 Students were primarily Black (22%) and Latinx (66%) from low-/no-income families (98%). Cognitive interviews were conducted with 16 teachers from 12 pre-schools from March-June 2020. Teachers were primarily white (81%), female (100%), middle/upper-class (average income $95,000), experienced (mean 23 years), and held graduate degrees (100%). Teachers were interviewed by telephone using the Self-in-Relation-to-Teaching protocol.12,14 Interviews lasted 90-150 minutes, and explored teachers’ social-emotional awareness. Health, family, current events, real-self versus teacher-self, and government, were probes of particular timeliness. Analytically, we leveraged deductive and inductive thematic analysis,15 employing Rodriguez’s Five Awarenesses of Teaching framework and identifying new themes via inductive coding.12

Preliminary Findings

Consistent with prior findings from ECE educators of color,12 analyses revealed the following themes:

1. Underdeveloped identity self-awareness:
2. “You before me”: Compassion fatigue.

Interviews conducted during COVID-19 revealed additional themes:
I. Technical/Practice-based challenges:
3. Families as “student” in the “classroom”
4. Supporting the whole-child

II: Mental/Physical health challenges:
5. “Real”-self vs. teacher-self
6. Awareness of trauma does not protect against vicarious impacts
7. Teaching in sickness and in health
8. To teach or to parent

The Five Awarenesses framework is a powerful tool for supporting the whole-teacher in the same complex way that we currently support the whole-child.16 Current trauma-informed PD17 may mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on students, but fails to address teachers’ own trauma.18 Preliminary findings suggest the need to invest in novel approaches to PD that transcends classroom-specific norms of teacher practice through behavior change.

Group Authors

NYU Langone

Authors