Narrative Communication of Teachers’ Support Needs for Violence-Based Trauma in the Schools

Abstract

Community violence is a serious public health problem, and research on community violence consistently documents a relationship between exposure to community violence and adolescents’ psychological and behavioral challenges, which, when considered cumulatively, can be understood as collective trauma. Preventing and mediating exposure to community violence by local schools is, thus, an important part of efforts to promote healthy adolescent development. As a societal problem, community violence and its socio-psychological effects lend themselves to an interdisciplinary approach for researching the problem and possible intervention and mitigation in local schools. The integrative, interdisciplinary approach to problem analysis in this study provides a framework for addressing trauma due to community violence as it affects the school environment. Narrative analysis, as a method of discovery, reveals the struggles of high school teachers dealing with the effects of violence-based trauma on their students. Policy recommendations and implications for future research are included.