A Scoping Review on Interventions in Educational Contexts to Support Students Exposed to War

Global conflicts and wars can have catastrophic impacts on children’s social-emotional and learning outcomes, which require evidence-based interventions to help mitigate these traumatic and educational effects. This scoping review aimed to identify approaches designed to support students and/or teachers and parents/caregivers in educational contexts when students have been exposed to war or global conflict. Following the PRISMA approach for conducting systematic reviews and using keywords under categories of “Trauma,” “War,” and “School,” a total of 41 articles were identified. Results revealed that the most common types of interventions provided to students included manualised psychological programmes ( n = 19) and arts-based interventions ( n = 19), followed by storying ( n = 14) and providing students with psychosocial support ( n = 14). Other programme types included culturally-informed programmes ( n = 8) and sport and movement-based approaches ( n = 7). Most interventions focused on supporting the psychosocial well-being of students ( n = 27), with fewer programmes focused on supporting teachers ( n = 14) and parents/caregivers ( n = 4). However, support provided to teachers and parents/caregivers was typically aimed at improving student well-being, rather than directly addressing the well-being needs of the adults themselves. The challenges and limitations of these approaches were identified, and implications have been suggested for practice, policy, and research. Greater awareness and application of multi-tiered trauma-informed approaches to support students exposed to war and conflict, and their teachers and parents/caregivers are required.