A Call for Healing Teachers: Loss, Ideological Unraveling, and the Healing Gap

This article describes the need to address the emotional health and healing of teachers in schools today. Specifically, I highlight the gap between how we support students healing from loss and the lack of such support offered to teachers. This fissure leads to burnout and an ideological unraveling of teacher identity. Sharing personal experiences, I ground this article in my tacit classroom experience. Furthermore, I explore what is missing in systemic attempts to sustain social and emotional learning in schools. Highlighting three dimensions of healing that can be addressed to answer this call for teacher healing, this work points to how teachers’ fullest selves emerge and sustain classroom learning when healing is a priority. By specifically noting that healing brings together the ruptured selves of teachers, fosters empathy within classrooms, and offers specific guidance for humanizing classroom design, I explain how teacher education can work toward healthier approaches to teaching careers.