Poster by Hsiu-I Hsueh, Chen, Li-Ming & Hsing, Chih-Pin
Abstract
Trauma-informed education (TIE) emphasizes teachers’ ability to recognize and respond to students’ trauma in ways that foster safety, trust, and resilience. While prior research shows that teacher empathy predicts sensitive classroom interactions (Fabris et al., 2024; Myta, 2021), little is known about how empathy operates within structural constraints that shape teachers’ actions. Drawing on both empirical and critical perspectives, this study examined the relationships among teachers’ trauma recognition, cognitive and emotional empathy, and trauma-informed responses in Taiwanese primary and secondary schools. A total of 112 in-service teachers completed self-report scales adapted from established instruments (Jolliffe & Farrington, 2006; Tanhan et al., 2022; Hickey et al., 2020; Christian-Brandt et al., 2020). Using a two-step approximate SEM approach, results indicated that trauma recognition significantly predicted both forms of empathy and overall trauma-informed responses. However, neither cognitive nor emotional empathy mediated this relationship, suggesting that teachers’ responses were guided more by professional obligation and institutional norms than by emotional resonance alone. Integrating a critical-applied lens, the findings reveal the institutional and cultural constraints of TIE. Even teachers equipped with trauma recognition and empathy may be limited by performance-driven policies, hierarchical school culture, and time pressures, which restrict the implementation of trauma-informed responses to students. As mentioned by Culshaw and Bodfield (2024), empathy-centered teaching may still confront structural inequities. Echoing Freire’s (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, trauma-informed practice should evolve from an individualized therapeutic model toward a “practice of freedom” that fosters teachers’ critical awareness of systemic oppression and ethical responsibility, potentially enhancing responses to traumatized students. This study thus bridges psychological and socio-critical perspectives, suggesting that effective TIE requires not only emotional attunement but also critical empathy—an ethically reflective, politically conscious orientation that empowers educators to transform trauma-perpetuating structures into spaces of care and justice. Keywords: Trauma-informed education, empathy, trauma recognition, trauma-informed responses, structural constraints