How Do Teachers Understand Adoption (and What Can Parents Do About It?)
What do teachers understand about adoption? What are the misperceptions? We talk with two researchers on this topic: Dr. Hal Grotevant, the Rudd Family Foundation Chair in Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Dr. Abbie Goldberg, a Professor of Psychology and current Director of Women’s & Gender Studies at Clark University.
In this episode, we cover:
- How knowledgeable were teachers in understanding the impact of trauma?
- How knowledgeable were teachers in understanding the impact of attachment?
- How knowledgeable were teachers in understanding the impact of adoption?
- How knowledgeable were teachers in understanding the impact of prenatal exposure?
- Was there a perception that adopted kids were “troubled”?
- What did they know about open adoption?
- How accepting were teachers to the idea of modifying assignments to reflect diverse families, including those formed by adoption?
- Do teachers know whether kids are adopted? Do they need to know? Do they feel comfortable asking for this information?
- Did teachers present lessons that included the diversity that adoption represents?
- Does teacher training, either formal or in-service, often include information on adoption?
- What can parents do to help their child’s teacher be more adoption-aware or adoption-sensitive?
- Where can listeners get more information on your research?
- The “Teachers and Adopted Children” Survey and the Factsheet for Teacher can be found here.
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Music Credit: Michael Ashworth
Image Credit: jonas mohamadi