Early school leaving and trauma-based education: a study in four European countries

ABSTRACT This research explores the use of trauma-sensitive practices in second chance education across four European countries, namely Austria, Ireland, Italy and Malta. The study used a quantitative methodology, whereby an online questionnaire was distributed amongst 249 educators who worked in second chance education. Over half of respondents believed that most of their students had experienced trauma, highlighting the importance of trauma-sensitive practices in this sector. Results also indicated that educators generally had a high level of perceived understanding of trauma and its impact, with relatively high levels of trauma-focused support and trauma-sensitive interactions also observed. A low to average amount of secondary traumatic stress was observed amongst participants. Efficacy in classroom management and in student engagement was found to be relatively high, with educators with more years of experience and specialist training having achieved higher scores in classroom management. Specialist training, however, was not linked with greater efficacy in student engagement, suggesting that the development of new specialist training programmes which focus on ways in which educators can increase students’ engagement could help to enhance the educational experience of these students. This study was conducted as part of the Erasmus+ funded research programme, Training Hope, Wellbeing, and Resilience in Vulnerable Early School Leavers (THRIVE) (2018–2020), which aimed to develop a trauma-focused training programme for educators in second chance education, to improve students’ experience in this sector by enabling educators to effectively engage with students, providing them with meaningful learning experiences as well as by improving educators’ classroom management skills.