Australia and New Zealand have reputations as countries prone to catastrophic and frequent natural and man-made disasters. Therefore, it is no surprise that antipodean academics want trauma-informed education for their journalism students. This study presents the Australian-New Zealand results of a 2021 survey exploring educators' attitudes toward…

Schools regularly find themselves dealing with the aftermath of family, community and national tragedies. In this article, two university-based educators share their experiences of working with schools to engage children in arts-based activities to support the processing of the traumatic events they endured. In both cases, children in local…

Since the 2010-2011 Christchurch earthquakes staff and learners at Waitakiri School have been participating in daily singing specifically to promote wellbeing, and wellbeing scores have remained high. Facilitation of the singing involved the creation of "no pressure", democratic and participatory conditions, with teachers specifically…

This study reports a subset of findings from a larger study that examined the emotional impacts of the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake on 20 teachers, who functioned as first responders when the earthquake struck in the middle of a normal school day. This qualitative study investigated the emotion regulation strategies employed by these…

New Zealand has faced an unprecedented series of disaster events in recent years. The Canterbury earthquakes provided an opportunity to document the role that schools played in supporting their communities to respond to and recover from such events. It is important that we capture what we have learnt from these experiences to help other schools in…

There is growing evidence that children are vulnerable to poor psychological outcomes following exposure to a range of potentially traumatic events. Teachers are in a unique and well-placed position to provide vital support to children following potentially traumatic events and to also provide a vital role in helping to identify children who may…

The authors compare the experiences of faculty and students at universities in Nepal and New Zealand following earthquakes in 2015 and 2011, respectively. Questionnaire data from students at Kathmandu University are analyzed and compared with previously published data from the University of Canterbury. Prominent themes are developed within the…

This is the post-earthquake story of how we as the staff and community of Opawa Primary School have lived with the tremors (literally and metaphorically) and trauma of this national tragedy, whilst endeavouring to maximise student learning and enhance the wellbeing of all the members of our school community. This is not founded on research but is…

The earthquakes that rocked the city of Christchurch and surrounding districts in Canterbury, New Zealand, were to take their toll on families, schools and communities. The places that had once represented safety and security for most children were literally and figuratively turned upside down. Rather than reinforce the trauma and continue to…