04/06/2021
By Robin Hall

The College of Education invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Tory Bunn on “Teachers' Understanding of Trauma in a Juvenile Justice Educational Setting.”

Date: Friday April 16, 2021
Time: 9:30 a.m. EST
Location: This will be a virtual defense via Zoom. Those interested in attending should email Phitsamay_Uy@uml.edu at least 24 hours prior to the defense to request access to the meeting.

Dissertation Chair: Phitsamay Uy, Ed.D. Associate Professor, College of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Dissertation Committee:

  • Jack Schneider, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, College of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Zenub Kakli, Ed.D., Scholar in Practice, College of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Abstract:

Poor academic performance of students while placed in juvenile facilities has been identified as a significant problem in childhood education throughout the United States. Over the last two decades, professionals and scholars have identified student trauma as a primary possible cause of these students’ failure to demonstrate academic progress. Further, student trauma and academic challenges can also be linked to frequent behavioral disruptions in the classroom by students. Childhood trauma is a far-reaching subject involving many complicated issues. One such issue is secondary traumatic stress that affects teachers who work in schools where a high percentage of the students have suffered or experienced some form of trauma.

Much of the research and literature on student trauma has concluded that providing teachers with trauma awareness training and strategies designed to improve a teachers’ awareness of trauma and their resiliency to trauma can effectively help teachers to better assist students suffering from trauma to improve the student’s behavioral issues and academic skills. The aim of this Dissertation in Practice (DiP) was to better understand how teachers at Sojourn High School (SHS), which is located in a juvenile detention center in Newark, NJ, perceived and described trauma in their school setting. Further, how these same teachers perceived and described a trauma training designed to provide strategies to help them understand trauma and build resiliency to working in a high trauma school that could eventually lead to improve student academics and behavior.

Specifically, the focus of this research was on four areas of concern. How do teachers at SHS describe and understand trauma as it relates to their students? Second, how do teachers at SHS describe and understand trauma as it relates to them as educators? Third, how does trauma sensitive classroom awareness impact, if at all, teacher referrals, attendance, and student grading, and teacher self-care practices? Fourth, how do teachers at SHS understand and describe the Trauma Sensitive Classroom professional development with online training component? This study employed a mixed-methods approach to conduct the research. Both quantitative and qualitative data in the form of surveys, interviews, and document analysis were used.