Ukraine: Teachers’ And Students’ Social And Emotional Well-Being

WHEREAS, the AFT’s solidarity with the Trade Union of Education and Science Workers of Ukraine and its members is long-standing and was strongly expressed in our 2022 convention resolution “Solidarity with Ukraine”; and

WHEREAS, AFT President Randi Weingarten and Vice Presidents Dan Montgomery and Shari Obrenski have traveled to Ukraine at the invitation of TUESWU and met with hundreds of members and leaders and personally witnessed the impact of the war with Russia on teachers and students; and

WHEREAS, the AFT’s support for Ukraine’s teachers and students has been lifted through partnerships with TUESWU, Education International, the Solidarity Center, the Ukraine Children’s Action Project, Human Rights Watch, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Save Ukraine, and the Kosciuszko Foundation; and

WHEREAS, the generational impact of the war has been devastating: More than 6 million Ukrainians have fled the country; 3,798 educational institutions have been bombed, of which 365 have been completely destroyed; and only 52 percent of students are optimistic about the future of Ukraine; and

WHEREAS, the AFT and TUESWU have worked with Human Rights Watch in Ukraine to document Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s education sector—the loss of schools, the crises among teachers and the tragic impact on communities; and

WHEREAS, the AFT and many affiliates, including the IFT, have long experience in offering trauma-informed instruction training to teachers and staff, and the AFT is committed to working with TUESWU in the development of professional development methodology to address the social and emotional trauma experienced by teachers and students, using the tools developed by a team of trauma psychologists at Columbia University for the Ukraine Children’s Action Project:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will support TUESWU in developing and offering a union-sponsored professional development course for its members in trauma-informed education and social and emotional well-being. Over the next two to three years, in collaboration with the Solidarity Center and the Ukraine Children’s Action Project, TUESWU and the AFT will conduct focus groups and pilot, monitor, roll out, evaluate and refine a continuing series of online and in-person tools to address the social and emotional impact on teachers and students of the war and its aftermath. After initial focus groups and training of leaders, the Ukrainian teachers union will be well-positioned and have the capacity to cascade this training forward and reach its 1.5 million members throughout the country; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will inform the Department of State, civil society organizations, global trade union partners and other stakeholder organizations of the ongoing impact of this project; further, the AFT will advocate among government and contracting agencies to include the concepts of trauma-informed education and educators’ social and emotional well-being in their development assistance programs; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will broadly distribute the Human Rights Watch report on the impact of the war on Ukraine’s physical and education infrastructure, highlighting violations of the additional protocol to the Geneva Convention’s “fundamental guarantee” of protecting children, schools and education, even in areas of armed conflict.