Twenty-eighth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

While teachers in every state in the U.S. receive training around child abuse, the training is generally minimal. However, decades of research indicates that teacher preparatory programs ill prepare teachers for properly addressing child maltreatment. Although teaching is the primary profession in which most mandatory reports are made, the absence of in-depth child maltreatment content is concerning and often results in a knowledge gap that leads to educators reacting to child maltreatment through trial and error at the risk to the child’s safety. While educators facilitate children’s learning, children cannot learn effectively when they are not socially and/or emotionally healthy. Trauma and the residual effects of child maltreatment are obstacles that educators must be trained to recognize, and they must be taught how to effectively intervene when children are not able to benefit fully from their education. Child Advocacy Studies (CAST), as a preparatory curriculum, strives to empower educators by better equipping them for the realities of both preventing and addressing child maltreatment and trauma. This paper discusses the authors’ development and implementation of a fully online, educator-focused Child Advocacy Studies program housed in the College of Education at State University of New York at Fredonia. In addition to considering achievements, challenges, and roadblocks throughout the process, implications for future practice for institutions of higher education seeking to develop and implement their own sustainable educator-focused CAST programs are included. Critical elements of teacher-driven trauma-informed interventions are also shared.