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Pre-service teachers' understanding of child abuse and their professional role in child protection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

Alice Brown
Alice Brown*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba Campus, Queensland 4350, Email: browna@usq.edu.au
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Abstract

Universities play an integral role in training teachers in the areas of understanding and preparedness to deal with child abuse and neglect while at the same time advocating for the ‘rights of the child’. Unfortunately pre-service teachers are at risk of being ill-prepared to meet their mandated and teaching responsibilities if their course content is not approached strategically. While numerous studies have investigated teachers' understandings of child abuse and the barriers in detecting and reporting this abuse, this research investigates pre-service teachers' understandings of child abuse and their preparedness to deal with the signs, symptoms and disclosures of child abuse. This paper reports on findings concerning pre-service teachers ‘views of their professional role in child protection and their recommendations for content to be included in their undergraduate degrees in teacher education.

Type
Research Article
Information
Children Australia , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , 2008 , pp. 25 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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