When Teaching Hurts: Exploring the Secondary Traumatic Stress Experiences of Early-Career SBAE Teachers

Abstract

Sources of satisfaction, stress, and burnout are all-too-familiar to school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers. Yet, the current literature related to SBAE stress has not addressed the overwhelming existence of trauma in our greater society. Teacher wellbeing can be compromised when students share their own adversities and traumatic experiences, thus producing secondary traumatic stress (STS). To lay a foundation for inquiry, we used the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) survey and scale to quantify and draw attention to STS. In this study, we found early-career SBAE teachers (n = 49) in Oregon experienced moderate levels of STS along with STS being a significant positive predictor of burnout. Given our findings, we urge scholars and practitioners to recognize the implications student trauma has on the lives of teachers. Students carry invisible wounds to the SBAE classroom, which inextricably transfers to the teachers caring for them. Secondary exposure to trauma is salient to the experiences of teachers. Left unattended to, STS could result in severe implications for the individual as well as the profession.

The emotional duties of an agricultural educator: Evaluating the confidence levels of agricultural educators to support students with adverse childhood experiences

“…3). As a result, agricultural educators are often more aware of students' experiences outside of the classroom (Schmidt et al, 2022). According to Hainline et al (2015), agricultural educators reported working 58.65 hours per week, many of which are through supporting SAE project development and travel associated with contests or conferences.…”

“…These five central principles guide how the CTT informs educators and mental health practitioners on how to approach healing. The agricultural educators' unique positioning to emotionally support students struggling with childhood trauma (Schmidt et al, 2022) can be a vessel for the CTT. Engaging the CTT, alongside the WSCC and TIC models, can provide an avenue for educators to leverage teacher-student relationships for emotional guidance and assist in the development of the resiliency and coping skills necessary to mitigate the negative effects of childhood trauma.…”

“…1). Particularly, Schmidt et al (2022) found that stress transferred from traumatized students to educators through secondary traumatic stress is a positive predictor of burnout levels. While many researchers have investigated educator burnout and job satisfaction, minimal research has been conducted on evaluating agricultural educators' personal experiences with ACEs to gauge their level of preparedness and confidence when interacting with and teaching students with ACEs to address a potential source of emotional stress and burnout.…”

“…This additional time spent with students outside the traditional classroom often allows agricultural educators to make strong personal connections with their students (Bird et al, 2013;Watson et al, 2015). In addition, students often confide in their agricultural educator(s) as a mentor, which often allows the agricultural educator to become more aware of the students' experiences away from the school setting (Bird et al, 2013;Schmidt et al, 2022;Watson et al, 2015). This elevated relationship role can sometimes place an additional emotional burden on the educator, which can increase secondary traumatic stress (Schmidt et al, 2022).…”

“…In addition, students often confide in their agricultural educator(s) as a mentor, which often allows the agricultural educator to become more aware of the students' experiences away from the school setting (Bird et al, 2013;Schmidt et al, 2022;Watson et al, 2015). This elevated relationship role can sometimes place an additional emotional burden on the educator, which can increase secondary traumatic stress (Schmidt et al, 2022). According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (2023), secondary traumatic stress "is the emotional duress that results when an individual hears about the firsthand trauma experiences of another" (para.…”