Browsing by Author "Palimo, Inka"

Objectives. The primary objective of this literature review is to evaluate to what extent teachers are or have been trained to recognize and report signs of child abuse and neglect (CAN). The focal point is on higher education, but the thesis will also look at in-service training against CAN. The secondary aim of this thesis is to consider the possible external reasons for underreporting of child abuse. This includes things such as bureaucracy, limited resources, and personal bias. Previous research has indicated that teachers lack the proper knowledge of CAN, and that child abuse is widely underreported. Methodology. This thesis was conducted as a systematic literature review, looking at several different studies from the past twenty years. Though there wasn’t a specific geographical focus, the majority of articles were administrated in Europe. The results of this thesis were derived particularly from seven articles, but multiple other research studies offered additional support and information. The literature was chosen by meticulous screening and using distinctive keywords. Results and conclusions. The reviewed literature reveals that teachers receive inadequate training on how to recognize and respond to abused children. Teachers are ignorant to the scope of child abuse and all its he subcategories. There is a dire need for proper – standardized – training, with some studies indicating that child protection training should be integrated to the very beginning of first-year undergraduate programs to ensure that any misinformation is dispelled early on. Implementing CAN training as a part of higher education for teacher trainees won’t necessarily fix all problems. There are several issues with peripheral matters, which need legislative or economic changes to be overturned. Having standardized training as a teacher trainee can still hold significance and enable change for the better.