Updated September 2026
Educators are deeply committed to supporting students who are navigating difficult circumstances. Yet the prevalence and complexity of adverse experiences can leave even experienced educators wondering what they can do, and which approaches will make a meaningful difference.
The resources below explore strengths-based approaches for supporting students experiencing trauma, violence, chronic stress, and other forms of adversity, with particular attention to practices that strengthen students’ sense of safety, belonging, agency, resilience, and academic success.
A strengths-based approach does not ask us to overlook or minimize what students have experienced. Rather, it calls for us to pay equal, if not greater, attention to the many strengths, capacities, experiences, and resources students possess and to recognize these as important foundations for learning. We play a critical role in creating learning environments where these assets are recognized and students feel valued, supported, and able to thrive. The following materials offer practical strategies, reflections, and tools for putting this approach into practice.
Supporting Multilingual Learners Living with Adversity
Explores how educators can draw on the strengths, experiences, and resources of multilingual learners facing adversity.
Related Resources
- Choose Empathy and Strength Over Hopelessness
- Empowerment, Agency, and Resilience
- Uplifting Multilingual Learners: A Strengths-Based Approach to Empower Students Navigating Adversity co-authored with Andrea Honigsfeld— forthcoming Teachers College Press, 2027.
3 Strengths-Based Instructional Strategies for Students Facing Adversity
Offers three practical, strengths-based strategies educators can use to support students facing adversity while building on their capacities, relationships, and resources.
Five Elements of a Positive Classroom Environment
Identifies five essential elements for creating classroom environments where students feel safe, valued, connected, and supported in their learning.
There’s More to the Story than Crossing Borders
Draws from a personal experience and an artist’s work to explore the importance of an empathetic approach.
Supporting Students After a Violent Event
Offers guidance for supporting students following a violent event, with attention to creating conditions that strengthen safety, connection, and emotional well-being.
Related Resource
Teaching to Strengths: Supporting Students Living with Trauma, Violence, and Chronic Stress
Presents a strengths-based framework for supporting students living with trauma, violence, and chronic stress, with practical approaches for building on students’ strengths and assets and creating conditions for learning and resilience.
Together, these resources offer practical ways to recognize students’ strengths and create learning environments that foster belonging, engagement, and success.
Continue learning: Explore online learning opportunities for research-based, strengths-focused approaches to supporting multilingual learners facing adversity.
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