1 Exploring Compassion Fatigue and Trauma in the South African Learning Environment Gloria Marsay* and Craig Higson-Smith St Augustine College of South Africa Department of Culture and Education P O Box 44782 Linden 2104 SA Tel (+27 11) 782 4616 Fax (+27 11) 782 8729 email: marsay@global.co.za South African Institute for Traumatic Stress P O Box 66223, Broadway 2101,SA; Tel: (+ 27 11) 648 7376. Fax (+27 11) 648 6105 email: saits@saits.org.za Abstract This study investigated the incidence and nature of traumatic experiences that educators encounter in their work, and examined the effects of these experiences. Traumatic exposure in the classroom is viewed against the backdrop of educators’ personal and professional experiences, and the levels of compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction and burnout were measured. The ways in which schools and educators deal with the effects of trauma were also explored. A sample of 146 educators from around the country completed two questionnaires. One questionnaire posed questions with regard to the incidence, nature and effects of trauma in the learning environment. The other questionnaire was the Compassion Fatigue Self-Test for Helpers (Figley, 1999:18-19). Both quantitative and qualitative analysis were used to make meaning of the data collected. The study revealed that educators are exposed to a high incidence of trauma as a result of violence, death and abuse in the community. The effects are largely negative, but some positive effects were also identified. The Compassion Fatigue questionnaire revealed that almost half the educators experience extremely high levels of Compassion Fatigue. An important finding of this study is that even a short course in dealing with the effects of trauma, significantly increases educators’ Compassion Satisfaction. Sadly, approximately a third of the educators feel that their coping strategies are inadequate given the realities of their work lives.