Does support from administrative leadership help keep teachers in their jobs by making them feel safer and less stressed? And when teachers experience violence from students in their classrooms, does it weaken the impact of that protective relationship?

To find out, researchers analyzed 2020–21 national survey data on school violence from 5,550 pre-K through 12th-grade teachers. Conducted in collaboration with the American Psychological Association (APA)’s Task Force on Violence Against Teachers and School Personnel, the study was published recently in Educational Researcher.

Andrew Perry, a senior lecturer in educational studies at The Ohio State University, led the project alongside a research team that included co-author Eric Anderman, a professor of educational psychology and vice provost for regional campuses. They focused specifically on teachers’ intentions to transfer or quit, noting that about one-third of educators who express a desire to leave actually follow through within the year.

The researchers’ definition of support centers on transparency and communication — such as teachers feeling safe and comfortable talking to principals about matters of discipline — and a general belief that school administrators will back up teachers when a disciplinary incident occurs.

They found that while supportive leadership is widely recognized as protective against teacher burnout, student-directed violence is a critical tipping point. In a sample where 44% of educators reported experiencing student victimization and up to 80% faced verbal or threatening aggression, high levels of violence systematically weakened the protective benefits of principal support.

These results did not surprise Perry. “Our hypotheses were largely supported by the study. What we expected to find, we found,” he said. “Support is beneficial and necessary, but not sufficient. You have to have it, but in the face of victimization, support alone is not enough.”

Prior research shows that teachers who are on the front lines in our schools are most susceptible to non-physical violence from students — including verbal threats, obscene remarks and slurs. It’s “a demoralizing, sobering day-to-day reality,” Perry said. “If a teacher feels they are in an environment where this stuff is ignored, and they have nobody to turn to, it becomes toxic to their well-being, and they want to get away.”

Notably, elementary school teachers reported being victimized more often than their peers. Perry suspects this is due to elementary students having a lower capacity for self-regulation, making them more likely to lash out through hitting, biting, throwing objects or screaming.

“Teachers sign up for the job, but dealing with young children presenting these behaviors is challenging. School principals being present and showing support is a necessary component, but systematic strategies are required alongside it,” he said.

In a 2024 School Psychology paper co-authored by Perry, researchers evaluated strategies schools use to prevent violence and found that zero-tolerance policies and school hardening practices, like upgrading physical security and surveillance systems, do not work. “The most effective strategies are restorative, prevention-based approaches that build a climate of mutual respect, safety and integrity,” he said.

Beyond institutional policies, Perry emphasized that addressing teacher retention requires a fundamental shift in how schools and communities handle classroom safety.

“Violence against teachers is real, pervasive and impactful. When teachers are victimized, they want to leave. Teacher attrition leads to cascading consequences: schools lose experienced veteran teachers and replacing them is expensive and leads to inexperienced instruction,” Perry said.

Administrators can influence teachers’ perceptions of school safety, anxiety and stress, and retention intentions, the researchers noted, but administrator support needs to be combined with positive and clear discipline policies, and effective violence prevention initiatives that include all stakeholders and systemic improvements in school culture and climate.

“Teachers are human beings who need support not only from principals, but from parents and the public as well,” Perry said.

This work was supported by the American Psychological Association. Additional co-authors include Linda A. Reddy of Rutgers University; Andrew Martinez of Hunter College; Susan D. McMahon of DePaul University; Ron A. Astor of the University of California, Los Angeles; Frank C. Worrell of the University of California, Berkeley; and Dorothy L. Espelage of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The study, published in the Early Childhood Education Journal, drew on survey data from 110 preschool teachers in two Midwestern states to examine how classroom play is supported across urban, suburban and rural settings. Researchers looked at three key factors: teachers’ own knowledge and beliefs about learning and play, their perception of family support for play and their perception of curricular support for it.

While teachers’ beliefs about play and curricular support didn’t differ by region — 96.9% agreed or strongly agreed that play supports academic learning — urban teachers were significantly less likely than suburban teachers to say families in their classrooms viewed play as essential to learning.

According to Erin Fox, lead author of the study and a recent graduate with a doctorate in human development and family science from The Ohio State University, both research and anecdotal stories from teachers and parents point to growing pressure in preschool settings to prioritize direct academic instruction, which can limit children’s time for play.

Fox was curious about how this tension was taking shape across communities and set out to explore equity in access to high-quality, play-based preschool.

“One of the biggest misconceptions is that play doesn’t support learning,” Fox said. “In general, I think most people would agree that play supports social emotional development, but may be less likely to understand how play can also support early literacy or math skills.”

Far from being just a “break” or a way for kids to burn off energy, playful learning is an evidence-based teaching strategy: The researchers define it as an active learning approach that combines child-directed, engaging elements with intentional adult guidance.

“From the outside, it might just look like kids are playing, but when you actually talk to the teachers, it’s very intentional and there are clear learning goals behind it,” said Kelly Purtell, a co-author of the study and associate professor of human sciences at Ohio State. The paper is part of a larger study focused on understanding how teachers use and think about play experiences in preschool and early elementary school classrooms.

Purtell notes a broader cultural shift in the way conversations about school readiness have come to dominate how families view preschool.

“When talking to teachers, both formally and informally, they’ve expressed that when some families send their kids to preschool, they really expect them to be there to learn and to be ready for kindergarten,” Purtell said. An increased focus on formal academic preparation, she added, shapes broader expectations of what preschool should look like.

As to why teachers in urban areas reported feeling less support from families around playful learning, the researchers speculate that parents in urban areas might be more exposed to narratives around the importance of school readiness, Purtell said, and there is a growing need to better educate parents and families about the important role of play-based learning in ensuring school readiness.

Parental concerns about kindergarten preparation are well-placed and understandable, Purtell said, and she hopes to help broaden how people think about school readiness.

“Play-based learning is a developmentally appropriate learning strategy,” she said, “and it’s something parents should feel comfortable talking to their children’s teachers about — to better understand how and why teachers are using play in the classroom — and how that’s helping kids develop and get ready for the transition to school.”

Purtell is also a faculty affiliate of the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, and Fox was a graduate research associate with the Crane Center. Additional co-authors were Maria Abdul-Masih of Ohio State, Rachel E. Schachter of the University of Illinois Chicago, Amy R. Napoli of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and Yuenjung Joo of the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Diaz’s research focuses on using geochemical techniques to investigate the role of ice and glacier meltwater in delivering nutrients to coastal ecosystems, which are critical for local fisheries, and to understand how chemicals are stored in ice as analogs for extraterrestrial environments. Her research, which has allowed her to study geological processes in Antarctica, Greenland and urban systems, and on other planets, bridges the physical, biological and social sciences, with implications for both Earth and faraway planetary systems. 

The CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program, now celebrating its 10th anniversary, recognizes exceptional early-career scientists and scholars from around the globe. This year’s cohort was selected from a highly competitive pool of 232 applicants representing leading institutions across Canada, the United States, Germany, Ireland and Israel. This award recognizes Diaz’s groundbreaking research in polar geochemistry and celebrates her leadership in connecting science to pressing issues. Scholars will participate in four interdisciplinary CIFAR research programs, working alongside internationally renowned experts to explore fundamental questions across science and society.

Diaz’s selection places her among a distinguished group of researchers who will contribute to CIFAR’s Earth 4D: Subsurface Science & Exploration program. It is one of 5 distinct Impact Clusters that address significant global issues. This program’s multidisciplinary team will seek to expand understanding of how life interacts with Earth’s resources, water cycle and climate. They will also study the co-evolution of the planet and life and the implications for planetary exploration and astrobiology.

The CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program is made possible by support from the Azrieli Foundation. Each scholar receives 100,000 in Canadian dollars. The award goes toward unrestricted research funding and access to international collaboration and leadership development opportunities. As equal members of CIFAR’s global research community, the scholars are expected to forge new interdisciplinary paths and contribute to high-impact discoveries.

Diaz earned her PhD from Ohio State in 2020 as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Afterward, she also received a prestigious award for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Postdoctoral Scholar program and later returned to Ohio State with a named professorship as a Provost’s Early Career Scholar Assistant Professor.

This alarming educational gap may be due in part to a mismatch between the mathematics preparation that many undergraduate students have and the math requirements for STEM students in introductory physics courses, said Geraldin​​e Cochran, an associate professor of physics at The Ohio State University. 

To help solve this issue, Cochran, whose research revolves around improving and expanding access to undergraduate and graduate physics education, was recently awarded a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to lead a project aimed at transforming introductory physics courses to help broaden participation in STEM. 

“Nationally, people are rethinking college admissions processes to support every student, especially at public institutions,” Cochran said. “The models I’m trying to document and evaluate are creating physics courses that are really aimed at supporting all enrolled students, regardless of math preparation.”

Her project, titled “INCLUDES Network Connector: A Network to Facilitate Transforming Introductory Physics Courses to Support All Students,” will seek to create physics courses that reduce course-specific math requirements for students by integrating quantitative literacy, a method that involves interpreting numerical information and applying it to real-world examples to solve scientific problems, and in-context math skills. 

NSF connector awards are typically centered around research that relies on shared visions, leadership, communication and scalability to help drive systemic change in education. 

In this case, Cochran plans to build a national community of instructors and researchers interested in making systemic changes to undergraduate physics education. Because a one-size-fits-all model of teaching doesn’t work well, Cochran’s project will document, evaluate and redesign introductory physics courses of various styles to better fit the needs of students. 

To investigate the efficacy of these material adjustments, project members will conduct a mixed-methods study to compare long-term student success through traditional teaching versus the newly transformed models. This process will include analyzing the next-year performances of those in sophomore and junior courses as well as the success rate for students of various demographics. 

Future probes will also encourage participants to share how their experiences with an altered physics sequence impacted their physics, math and engineering identity and if they have any reflections on the course experience post-graduation. 

The plan builds on work already done at the University of Washington, Rutgers University and Lamar University, whose programs sought to foster policies that support students from all backgrounds at the undergraduate level by allowing students to incorporate their real-world knowledge of physics in traditional assessments and created additional time to be mentored by approachable physics faculty members and advanced undergraduates.

One of the ways the project will seek to do something similar at Ohio State is by incorporating skills from algebra, trigonometry and calculus into the physics class. 

“One of the reasons that so many people are resistant to math is because they don’t understand its usefulness,” said Cochran. “They don’t see it in context, but physics can illuminate the real world and connect problems you want to solve.”

Funding from the award will support the creation of additional physics sequences within three participating universities’ physics departments. At Ohio State, one such physics course with the new curriculum, which will be taught by Cochran, will begin this coming fall. 

Cochran, who has worked with Ohio State’s Thomas Gramila, Lisa Barclay and Mary Leist to better understand students’ current needs, hopes to collaborate with other members of the Ohio State community engaged in similar work. For instance, because many individuals in the class will be majoring in engineering, Cochran will also collaborate with Ohio State’s CARE Office to support the development of students’ engineering identities. 

“Regardless of their math background, all accepted students should have the opportunity to succeed in physics and enjoy themselves while doing it,” Cochran said.