A chance for childhood : a handbook about child abuse for teachers of Newfoundland and Labrador

Abstract

Child abuse has become identified as a major concern of all communities in today's society. While resolving the problem is considered to require a multidisciplinary approach, teachers are often faced with abuse when they are alone within their classrooms. A community social concern suddenly becomes an individual's professional concern. -- The purpose of this project is to develop a handbook about child abuse for teachers of Newfoundland and Labrador. While the laws and policies of this province state teachers' legal obligations to report known or suspected abuse to the appropriate authorities, many of the dilemmas teachers face when confronted with child abuse have generally been overlooked. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a handbook which will increase teachers' knowledge, confidence and competence with respect to child abuse reporting, while aiming to reduce child abuse in Newfoundland and Labrador. -- This project report contains four separate chapters: Chapter I includes a discussion of the problem; Chapter II contains a review of the background research, and a rationale for the project; Chapter III provides a description of the methodology used; and Chapter IV contains the results of the project, which is a self-contained handbook. The first three chapters provide the basis for the fourth chapter. Together, all four chapters were written to fulfil the requirements for the degree of Master of Education. It is anticipated that Chapter IV will be published separately, therefore different Tables of Contents and References have been included.