The Role of Teachers in Fostering Resilience After a Disaster in Indonesia

School Mental Health https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-024-09709-y ORIGINAL PAPER The Role of Teachers in Fostering Resilience After a Disaster in Indonesia Elinor Parrott1 · Martha Lomeli‑Rodriguez1 · Rochelle Burgess2 · Alfi Rahman3 · Yulia Direzkia4 · Helene Joffe1 Accepted: 19 August 2024 © The Author(s) 2024 Abstract Disasters are distressing and disorientating. They often result in enduring community-wide devastation. Consequently, young people may seek support from trusted adults to scaffold their emotional responses and to support their psychosocial recovery. An important non-familial adult in a student’s life is their teacher. However, few studies have examined teachers’ perspectives on the support they provide to students after exposure to disasters, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) with collectivistic cultural orientations. Given the potential for teachers to foster students’ resilience, the goal of this study was to examine how teachers conceptualise their role following a major disaster. Forty teachers were interviewed from three schools in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, after a major earthquake and tsunami in September 2018. Thematic analysis shows that teachers act as agents of community resilience after a disaster. The two themes presented converge on support-based aspects. Teachers provided: (1) psychoeducational support (i.e. supporting students’ well-being and educational continuity, including encouraging their return to school) and (2) practical support (i.e. assisting administrative roles, aid distribution and disaster risk reduction). Within these themes, socioculturally specific practices are elucidated, including the Indonesian value of mutual assistance (‘gotong royong’), storytelling (‘tutura’) and the role of religiosity as a form of psychosocial support. Overall, our results highlight the capacity and willingness of teachers to play a central role in the psychosocial recovery of students and their families, contributing to community resilience. We identify implications such as the importance of providing accessible psychological training and support for teachers. Keywords Resilience · Schools · Teachers · Disaster · Trauma Introduction Young people are vulnerable to the negative psychological and behavioural manifestations of disaster-related trauma (Kar, 2009a, 2009b; Peek, 2008). The adverse psychological impacts of disasters for young people can range from * Elinor Parrott 1 Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London (UCL), London, UK 2 Institute for Global Health, University College London (UCL), London, UK 3 Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center (TDMRC) and Research Centre for Social and Cultural Studies (PRISB), Universitas Syiah Kuala, Darussalam, Banda Aceh, Indonesia 4 Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center (TDMRC), Universitas Syiah Kuala, Darussalam, Banda Aceh, Indonesia transient psychological distress and poor mental health to chronic psychopathology (Norris et al., 2002). This includes post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety and externalising behavioural problems, including substance abuse (Pfefferbaum et al., 2015). The mental health of young people can be impacted by the initial disaster exposure, as well as the cumulative stressors that disasters trigger (Chen et al., 2023), which can persist for many years post-disaster (Brown et al., 2017). Disaster stressors include threat to life, bereavement, loss of the home and widespread community social and economic disruption (Chen et al., 2023). While trauma reactions can cause severe and long-term impairment for some, a large proportion of disaster-exposed youth initially experience elevated trauma symptoms, which diminish over time, without the need for clinical intervention (Bonanno et al., 2010; Hechanova & Waelde, 2017; La Greca et al., 2010). For example, research indicates that chronic symptom elevations are rarely found in more than 30% of young people (Bonanno et al., 2010). While a range Vol.:(0123456789) School Mental Health of risk and protective factors influence the mental health of young people following disaster exposure (see Masten & Motti-Stefanidi, 2020; Masten, 2021), the social resources within a young person’s support network can effectively buffer some of the negative psychological impacts of a disaster (Silove, 2005). Particularly, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), resource constraints can limit the specialist mental health support available (Patel et al., 2013), causing young people to rely on friends, caregivers and teachers (Masten & Narayan, 2012). It is therefore essential to examine the factors within a young person’s environment that facilitate recovery after a disaster. The Role of Schools and Teachers in Supporting Resilience After Disaster Schools are an important source of support for traumaexposed young people. In disaster settings, schools support students across the disaster preparedness, response and recovery phases (Mutch, 2014). Teachers are expected to communicate disaster preparedness and risk reduction information and implement disaster drills (Ronan et al., 2015). During the response phase, which occurs immediately following the disaster in the emergency period, teachers are responsible for making potentially lifesaving decisions if the disaster strikes during school hours (Ema, 2012). Teachers often coordinate the repurposing of schools as evacuation shelters and/or centres for disaster relief (Ema, 2012; Oktari et al., 2015). During the recovery stage, when the focus is on restoring pre-crisis conditions, the ongoing social support from peers and teachers in schools can act as a protective buffer against negative disaster impacts (Bikar et al., 2021; Masten, 2021; Masten et al., 2021; Parrott et al., 2023a, 2023b). Furthermore, since 2000 school enrolment rates have increased drastically in LMICs (Fasih et al., 2018). For example, in Indonesia, junior secondary school enrolment has risen from 60% in 2000 to 78% in 2015 and senior secondary school enrolment has increased even more drastically from 39% in 2000 to 60% in 2015 (Fasih et al., 2018). Therefore, schools provide the social infrastructure to access a large number of children, making them a convenient site for post-disaster mental health interventions (Fazel et al., 2014). While the role of the teacher may vary depending on the context, in general, initial teacher training does not include specialist mental health support (Shelemy et al., 2019; Shepherd et al., 2013). Nevertheless, following a disaster, teachers may receive training to deliver universal (i.e. not targeted based on the diagnostic screening of a specific clinical group) classroom-based interventions, which offer a cost-effective solution to address the substantial demand for mental health support (e.g. Coombe et al., 2015; Lai et al., 2016; Seyle et al., 2013). A c (...truncated)