Teachers interacting with stressed and traumatized children are susceptible to secondary traumatic stress. Unlike college coursework in other social service disciplines, a dearth of literature on this topic informs teacher preparation programs. Prevention and intervention strategies for educators are suggested in this article.

The cross-national pedagogical e-pal project was implemented between teacher candidates in the United States and the United Arab Emirates with the purpose of expanding teacher candidates’ perspectives on culture.  During the five weeks of the intervention, in teams of three, participants had informal online conversations and discussed schooling scenarios to illuminate and articulate their decision-making.  In this study, the teacher candidates’ views were captured in pre- and post-surveys, in their posts, and in their reflection responses.  All data were analyzed to understand the change in their views on their culture and their partner’s culture as well as any newly developed perspectives on culture.  The findings indicated a shift in their views toward a more in-depth understanding of cultures.

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The “Autobiographical R/W/L/S Method” was deployed by eight teacher candidates to develop literacy skills and socio-emotional learning (SEL) competencies in 4th-grade students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The R/W/L/S intervention was focused on autobiographical writing. Interactions took place in a HyFlex environment with the intervention delivered through the Microsoft Teams video conferencing platform. After the intervention, students shared more information about themselves than before, demonstrating improved autobiographical literacy skills. The heightened willingness to share is indicative of trust-building among participants and therefore suggestive of socio-emotional learning. Outcomes also suggest that enhanced autobiographical literacy is beneficial to children who may once have struggled to express their feelings by alleviating stress and providing pathways to camaraderie through the sharing of autobiographical stories. The use of digital communication technology is thought to be key in allowing for these positive outcomes to occur during an international pandemic.

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