Cultivating Healing-Centered Classrooms of Care: Insights for Preservice Teachers Serving Newcomer Students

Newcomer students face a myriad of structural challenges that shape their academic, social, and emotional well-being in schools in the United States. However, some teachers may feel ill-equipped to teach and care for these students in practice. The purpose of this study explores the work of a veteran teacher’s classroom management strategies and her ability to cultivate a healing-centered environment for newcomer students. Conceptually, a healing-centered approach is used to expand ways of thinking about responses to trauma and building empathy and systems of care in the classroom for newcomer students. The findings in this paper provide insights for teachers on how healing-centered insights can strengthen pedagogies and classroom practices that serve newcomer students and can support their academic and psychosocial well-being at school.