2: The Need for Trauma-informed Educational Leadership

This chapter explores the need for trauma-informed educational leadership and why this emerging paradigm provides a singular narrative towards developing leadership practices that address increasing complexity within school communities. Trauma-informed education (TIE) addresses school concerns of childhood adversity, youth mental health, behavioural needs, disengagement, and school refusal, in addition to concerns of staff retention and staff wellbeing (Stokes & Brunzell, 2024). The paradigm fortifies positive behaviour management, an effective school climate for learning, social-emotional learning, and psycho-education as appropriate within schools. This unified practice narrative is crucial for leaders who may already be service rationing and experiencing compassion fatigue and burnout. However, trauma-informed educational leadership approaches aim for school leaders to strategically implement durable strategies to support staff to increase their support of students and families.