Seeking Restorative Experiences

TLDR

This study converges teacher stress and restorative environment research to examine how elementary Chicago teachers seek everyday places to enact restorative coping strategies. Seventy‑one survey responses revealed that teachers’ spontaneous place choices are linked to stress sources and that a place’s restorative potential depends on its ability to support inward or outward coping, with effective strategies employed in settings such as home, nature, city, third places, and church, and that experiences varied by perceived stress frequency and type, pointing to opportunities for restorative design interventions in school environments.

Abstract

Teacher stress and coping research and restorative environments research were converged in this study to explore how elementary school teachers in Chicago seek out everyday places in their milieu to implement restorative coping strategies. Seventy-one survey responses revealed that teachers' spontaneous place choices are related to sources of stress and that the restorative potential of a place was related to its ability to support teachers'inward or outward coping strategies. Teachers implemented effective strategies in places such as home, nature, city places, third places, and church. The ways these places were experienced differed according to teachers' perceptions of frequency and type of stress and how the place enabled the inward or outward strategy as needed. Findings suggest directions for exploring restorative design interventions in teachers' environments, especially within school environments.