“You’re Dealing With Kids”: Trauma-Informed Communicative Resilience Within School Public Relations

This study sought to understand the emotional, and potentially traumatic, experiences of 23 school public relations (PR) practitioners throughout the United States as they navigate a changing, and increasingly politicized, educational landscape. By arguing that school PR constitutes a high-risk profession, we sought to understand PR practitioners’ processes of communicative resilience and the degree to which it includes trauma-informed principles. Findings from this study include recognizing the need to include emotional safety in the crafting of normalcy and the use of strategic non-transparency as an alternative logic. We also argue that legitimizing negative feelings is a form of productive action.