From leadership research to district action: Teaching on the Frontlines: A Narrative Inquiry of Teachers' Experiences With School‐Based Trauma

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. Proposed district actions are separate from the original authors’ findings and recommendations. Independent peer review of this guide is not asserted.

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Evidence and transfer

Education-related source: verify which participants, institutions and outcomes were actually studied before district adoption. Source publication type: research-article. License and identity checks do not establish study quality or causality.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the source license:

ABSTRACT Background This study is grounded in the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model, which highlights the interconnectedness of student and staff well‐being in promoting healthy, safe, and supportive school environments. It explores how school‐based trauma influences teachers' well‐being and professional identity. Methods Utilizing a qualitative, narrative inquiry approach, four K‐12 teachers in New York City Title I charter schools participated in three semi‐structured interviews and one school‐based observation. Data were analyzed thematically and represented through a narrative documentary script. Results Findings are organized around four narrative threads: (1) trauma's impact on teacher well‐being, (2) the emotional burden of unresolved student trauma, (3) post–COVID‐19 disruption to school climate, and (4) purpose and teacher leadership as sources of resilience. Participants described trauma exposure as cumulative over time and influential in shaping their professional identities and leadership trajectories. Implications for School Health Policy, Practice, and Equity Trauma‐informed professional learning, accessible mental health resources for staff, and opportunities for teacher leadership are essential in building and maintaining safe, equitable, and resilient schools. Conclusions Centering teacher narratives reveals how direct and secondary trauma affect educators' health and capacity to sustain supportive learning environments for the students they serve. Keywords: educator well‐being; narrative inquiry; secondary traumatic stress; teacher trauma; Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC)

Study methods

Narrative inquiry was selected to center the lived experiences of teachers exposed to trauma in school settings. This methodology is particularly well‐suited for work with teachers, as it aligns with how educators already make sense of their practice [30]. Grounded in the study of experience as story, narrative inquiry examines how individuals interpret and make meaning of events and relationships that shape their lives [31]. Rather than cataloging trauma symptoms through quantitative methods, this approach enables exploration of how school‐based trauma shapes teachers' identities, relationships, and emotional well‐being over time [32].

Limitations

This study has several limitations that should be considered when interpreting its findings. Narrative inquiry prioritizes depth over generalizability; therefore, the small sample size does not reflect the full diversity of educators in Title I charter schools or other school settings [31, 68]. All participants worked in urban charter schools in New York City, which may differ from public, private, or rural schools in terms of context, resource availability, student needs, and organizational supports.

A 90-day district inquiry

Days 1–15 · Appraise. Read the source methods, recruitment, comparator, outcomes and limitations. Record how the study setting differs from your district and which claim the design can support.
Days 16–30 · Design. Choose one school improvement question with teachers. Protect a short shared planning cycle, agree an instructional change and use a common rubric for examining student work. Agree participation, privacy protections, baseline and stopping rules before starting.
Days 31–60 · Observe. Collect the pre-agreed measures, keep a log of implementation changes and invite confidential voluntary feedback. Preserve existing support for staff and learners.
Days 61–90 · Decide. Review implementation fidelity, teacher time and independently scored student work against a recorded baseline. Examine access differences and competing explanations before attributing changes to leadership. Make a dated decision to stop, revise or extend the inquiry.

Board decision brief

Present the local problem, source setting, evidence limits, intervention, responsible owner, total cost, measured changes and uncertainty. Separate staff perceptions, implementation measures and student learning outcomes.

Attribution and reuse

Jennifer L Caruso; Sonali Rajan. Teaching on the Frontlines: A Narrative Inquiry of Teachers' Experiences With School‐Based Trauma. The Journal of School Health (2026-08-01). https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.70193

Prepared 2026-11-07. Source authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract and source passages are attributed extracts; this editorial guide is offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license.