Research

My research examines a question that emerged directly from my practice: what are the perspectives of early childhood educators on their preparedness to implement trauma-informed care? My completed honours research study, Trauma-Informed Care: Perspectives of Early Childhood Educators, investigates this question through qualitative interviews with Registered Early Childhood Educators in Southern Ontario, examining how post-secondary education, workplace conditions, and professional learning shape, or fail to shape, educator readiness to implement trauma-informed care. I worked primarily with practitioners in community-based and family support contexts, and my research reflects a sustained commitment to amplifying the voices of educators who work in under-resourced settings with highly complex populations.

My work sits at the intersection of trauma-informed practice, early childhood educator preparation, and equity in post-secondary education. Theoretically, I draw on relational and trauma-informed frameworks, particularly Dr. Bruce Perry's work on the centrality of safe, consistent relationships in children's healing, alongside anti-oppressive and equity-centred approaches to educator preparation. Methodologically, I use qualitative inquiry, specifically semi-structured interviews, as a means of centering practitioner voice and surfacing systemic patterns that quantitative approaches cannot easily capture. My findings are not only academic conclusions, they are a call to the field to take seriously the gap between how we prepare educators and what the work actually requires of them.