Teachers are secondary care givers, where they too nurture and care give learners while at school. But this doesn't happen without a cost. Compassion fatigue, well known as cost of caring. When teachers absorb trauma from learners, without support, often times they will experience emotional burn out and fatigue, hence losing the ability to care and nurture. Compassion Fatigue.
Compassion fatigue due to secondary (vicarious) trauma is inevitable in teaching as a profession.
When forums are created where teachers can open up, discuss their struggles in safe spaces, it not only reduce the impact of secondary trauma but also increases compassion resilience; the ability to care and nurture learners.
This is the reason why Trauma Informed Schools Kenya is on a mission to help teachers create ways of navigating compassion fatigue and tackling it within the school set up.
One way of doing that is visiting schools and listening to teachers air out their hardships and struggles within the profession. Teachers are encouraged to:
*Form support groups where they can share lived experiences as they interact with learners
*Discuss up coming cases of discipline in a bid to find amicable solutions that will support learner's well being within this groups
*Collaborate with the school administration for support when learner discipline cases are beyond their capability to find solution
*Define and create a space for the role of parents in the school especially on discipline cases. Many parents do not realize that what happens at home will always end up at school, often times portrayed by the learners behavior.
*Amplify the learner's voice so as to make them feel part of the school ownership by:
1. Creating communities of care within the classroom where learners take care of each other's needs
2.Amplifying their voices by having them discuss classroom rules and regulations, come up with consequences of breaking them and also methods of positive reinforcements
3. Teach learners on self expression by introducing classroom activities such as Roses and Thorns
Roses: Learners tell about one good thing that has happened to them
Thorns: Learners also tell of something bad that has happened to them lately.
This will not only teach them how to balance their emotional issues, but also teach that its okay to open up and speak when things are good or bad.
4. Encourage the leaners on school leadership: for example electing a school president and forming a cabinet where they can compete in debates on current issues affecting their country and school.
5. Since the school heads and other leaders are part of the forum, they are also encouraged to support teachers, by ensuring that they are accessible and willing to be part of solution.
Psycho-social Support:
TISK team member, Irene Awino who is a Trauma Informed Counselling Psychologist have come up with psycho social support programs for teachers:
Having out door sessions where teachers from different schools have safe spaces to speak and share their struggles openly.
Its also in this sessions where emotional regulation strategies such as meditation, deep breathing, mindfulness, whole body exercises take place among many more. Though at the initial stages, the program aims at reaching out to teachers during half term and holidays, so that they can unwind and clear their body systems of stresses absorbed during an active academic period.
At TISK we understand that it is not possible to achieve school's mental health without first of all taking care of teacher's mental health well being.
Support for the teacher = Supporting the learner.
We also believe in 1% progress: Small small progress which amounts to a lot with time.
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