Considering early childhood education teachers’ perceptions of risk

•Teachers faced risks when focusing on children and families.•More so than when they focused on their own personal safety.•Childcare centers as transitional spaces made necessary by violence.•Young adults use narrating as a means for interacting with dangers.•Affordances of collective uses of cultural tools and contexts.

Because of violence, poverty, and inequality worldwide, teachers are increasingly working in high-risk situations. To support teacher development, education researchers can usefully study professionals in the field to understand their working environments. This paper presents theory, method, and findings to consider how teachers in the high-risk favelas of Rio de Janeiro understand risk. Based on narrative inquiry design and analysis, findings indicate that what appears to be avoiding reality, coping, or being resilient, comes into view as teachers’ ways of narrating to mediate professional and community circumstances. We conclude with a discussion for ongoing research and practice.