Analysis of interviews with secondary school educators reveals the need for better concussion education and protocols

By Zoe Marquis. This article was initially published in the 8/1/24 edition of our Concussion Update newsletter; please consider subscribing.

A recent analysis published in Psychology in the Schools found that concussion knowledge often depends on personal experience, teachers were “not exposed to concussion education as part of their training,” and that structured concussion education and recognition protocols are needed immediately in Irish secondary schools. Researchers Caomhan Conaghan et al. note that “teachers repeatedly suggested… [concussion education] could be very successful if delivered as a form of continued professional development… which is a requirement for Irish secondary school teachers.” The researchers note that up to 20% of Irish 15 and 16-year-olds have experienced a concussion and that concussions “can negatively impact academic performance” and classroom behavior in adolescents, particularly for those students who have experienced multiple concussions.  They called for better communication pathways and dissemination of concussion materials in Irish secondary schools, protocols for medical emergencies, and academic adjustments and accommodations for concussed students. 

Researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 Irish secondary school teachers. Eleven of the teachers were male, and seven were female; the teachers had a variety of experiences with athletics and coaching, plus a variety of previous experience with concussion, including concussions suffered or witnessed and concussion education. The researchers analyzed the interviews using reflexive thematic analysis. This structured process involves identifying patterns in the data by coding the transcript according to topics and then generating themes using those codes. Caomhan Conaghan et al. identified five themes and 22 subthemes across the interviews: teacher’s background experience, consequences of concussion, concussion in school, educating educators, and existing standards. The researchers found that teachers had “safer attitudes observed in those who have witnessed or experienced concussions.” The researchers conclude that concussion education could be developed to fulfill the required continuous professional development (CPD) hours, thus “increasing teacher buy-in.”