Trauma-informed education: a case for compassion-focused teaching?

While education seeks to develop academic knowledge, there too lies the need for children and young people's personal, social, emotional, and ethical needs to be met, to develop confidence and autonomy. With ongoing austerity and the closure of universal services such as Children Centres , there is an ever-increasing need for schools to become trauma informed, as they continue to gain recognition as a first line of defence against later mental health issues, warranting earlier and more pervasive intervention and support. As a result, therapeutic approaches and teaching continue to converge in schools in varying capacities. Well-being and academic learning should be regarded in equal measure; however, the application of standalone interventions raises the question of what needs to be considered for mental health and well-being to be authentically trauma informed and threaded into the culture and pedagogy of schools long term. This paper uses existing literature to examine the implications of trauma-informed education in developing a case for compassion-focused pedagogy in schools, considering the benefits and potential barriers to its implementation