Teacher use of trauma-informed practice in the classroom: the role of teacher trauma literacy, professional learning and classroom experiences

Teacher use of trauma-informed practice (TIP) in the primary school classroom is an under-explored phenomenon. Classroom teachers are required to support students who are affected by trauma; however, the specific factors that indicate, determine or predict a teacher’s use of trauma-informed practices are largely unresearched. New South Wales primary school teachers (N = 226) reported their use of trauma-informed practices in their classrooms as well as their teacher self-efficacy, trauma literacy, professional learning, and classroom teaching experiences. Teachers were more likely to report using trauma-informed practices if they had higher trauma literacy, had completed more trauma-related professional learning and had prior experience teaching a student with a trauma diagnosis. Teacher self-efficacy did not significantly contribute to predicting teacher use of TIP. The findings imply that modest levels of trauma literacy and relatively small amounts of professional learning support teacher use of TIP in the classroom.