Podsiadlik integrates educational philosophy, literary analysis, and reflective practice to examine ways in which grief can illuminate the nuances and complexities of a teacher’s life and work.

In this dissertation I investigate 1. What it is like to teach English language arts while grieving a death and 2. How the relational work of teaching influences teachers' engagement with English language arts curriculum while they are grieving a death. In order to understand experiences of grieving a death while teaching English language arts, I drew on phenomenological traditions to interview seven English teachers. I then transcribed their accounts of their experience. To analyze these interviews, I engaged in qualitative coding that yielded five main themes. A synthesis of these themes found that while grieving a death, teachers managed their emotions, worked to reconcile professional expectations with competing emotions, and endeavored to keep positive relationships with students and colleagues. The findings from this study also indicated that due to their perceptions of their professional roles, teachers did not have significant space or time at school to process their personal grieving. I argue that teachers' perceptions of their roles, especially their roles as professionals who work to build relationships with students, matter a great deal in understanding how teachers engage with curriculum. Educational research should therefore attend to the relational role of teaching, especially in explorations of how English teachers and students make personal connections to texts as part of engagement with ELA curriculum. Furthermore, I argue that teachers' experiences and their understandings of their roles as professionals, which are often grounded in historical discourses about the teaching profession, should be addressed more readily in teacher education curriculum. Finally, educational research should center teachers' voices and experiences to better understand what happens in schools and to help teachers to feel less alone in their navigation of healing from grievous personal circumstances while simultaneously fulfilling their professional roles as teachers.

Teachers are not automatons. An educator's personal values, concerns, and aspirations cannot be cleaved from one's professional life without impacting the quality and relevance of the teaching experience. This book examines spaces where the personal and professional intersect, thereby deepening our understanding of the nuances and complexities of a teacher's work. It draws readers into places of vulnerability-moments of grieving. As a teacher's curriculum-as a curriculum of life-grief has much to teach about sympathy, compassion, and resilience. 0Educational philosophy, literary analysis, and reflective practice are used to explore ways grief can help us better ascertain the scope and depth of the educators we are and have the potential to become. Pieces of literature used include works by Pat Conroy, Charles Dickens, Stephen King, Rabindranath Tagore, Virgil, Franz Wedekind, and Virginia Woolf. Also included are ideas from a diverse set of educational philosophers, social and cultural commentators, poets, and more. Chapters conclude with "Topics for Reflection" for further individual and/or collective reflection and discourse. 0Educators at all stages of their careers will benefit from this study that demonstrates the impact personal grieving can have on remembering, recovering, and reidentifying with one's mission and vision. As a resource for pre-service or veteran teachers, the text celebrates the power of introspection to transform our work, our lives, and the lives of our students. It is equally relevant for parents, coaches, mentors, and anyone who takes on the kinds of teacher roles that impact, nourish, and inspire the lives of others.

"Written by the national go-to expert on childhood bereavement and school crisis, this new edition text from author David Schonfeld and co-author family therapist Marcia Quackenbush guides teachers through a child's experience of grief and loss. Using empirical research and their extensive experience supporting students, the authors illuminate classroom issues that grief may trigger, and empowers teachers to undertake the job of reaching and helping their students. Full of tips, strategies, vignettes, examples, and insights, Supporting the Grieving Student: A Guide for Schools also includes information on numerous topics relevant to child bereavement in school settings, including: major concepts of death that are crucial to children's understanding of the topic; responding to children's feelings and behaviors; how to effectively communicate with students and their families; commemorative activities; self-care; and providing support when a death affects a whole school community. New to this edition are an expanded online study guide, reflection prompts throughout the book, and new information including: Applications for an expanded audience of school administrators, counselors, social workers, psychologists, support staff, etc., New chapters on suicide loss and providing support in settings outside of K-12 schools, Revised chapters that include new information on social media, ambiguous losses, school crisis and trauma, supporting children with disabilities, and more school policies, line of duty deaths, commemorative activities, A new foreword written by a school administrator from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School As a practical guidebook, Supporting the Grieving Student: A Guide for Schools is essential reading in helpings teachers provide critical, sensitive support to students of all ages"--