Teacher Wellbeing in the Context of Teachers Attending to Student Mental Health Needs: A Case Study of Three Secondary Schools in South England.
type: CreativeWork
description: This doctoral dissertation investigates the impact on secondary school teachers’ wellbeing in the UK from supporting students’ mental health needs. A multi-case study methodology was used whereby qualitative data was collected from three secondary schools in South England. The topic of student mental health is unavoidable in contemporary classrooms across the UK. Increasingly, teachers rather than mental health professionals are the primary delivery agents of mental health interventions (Goodwin et al., 2021). Teachers play both public health and primary care roles, promoting societal health and acting as the first point of contact when problems arise for young people (Lowry et al., 2022). These points raise the question as to what sort of impact this is having on those who are carrying out this role. Surprisingly, however, there is little research which looks at this. Furthermore, the limited research in this area tends to focus on primary schools. There is also a strong tendency amongst literature on mental health in education to centre on students at the cost of neglecting teachers’ voices. My research is therefore both timely and well needed. This research identifies that, whilst there are some aspects of attending to student mental health needs which can have a positive impact on teacher wellbeing, the volume of negative impacts eclipse these. Furthermore, these negative experiences stay with teachers for a long time resulting in difficulties switching-off from the distress. To combat these challenges of the job, whilst many teachers find social support can be a helpful resource, some teachers do not – this is motivated through fear of negative judgement from other colleagues and Seniors. In relation to teacher self efficacy as a supportive resource for teachers, this research found that it can be difficult to develop in the context of teachers attending to student mental health needs due to limited mental health training support for teachers. Furthermore, less…
abstract: This doctoral dissertation investigates the impact on secondary school teachers’ wellbeing in the UK from supporting students’ mental health needs. A multi-case study methodology was used whereby qualitative data was collected from three secondary schools in South England. The topic of student mental health is unavoidable in contemporary classrooms across the UK. Increasingly, teachers rather than mental health professionals are the primary delivery agents of mental health interventions (Goodwin et al., 2021). Teachers play both public health and primary care roles, promoting societal health and acting as the first point of contact when problems arise for young people (Lowry et al., 2022). These points raise the question as to what sort of impact this is having on those who are carrying out this role. Surprisingly, however, there is little research which looks at this. Furthermore, the limited research in this area tends to focus on primary schools. There is also a strong tendency amongst literature on mental health in education to centre on students at the cost of neglecting teachers’ voices. My research is therefore both timely and well needed. This research identifies that, whilst there are some aspects of attending to student mental health needs which can have a positive impact on teacher wellbeing, the volume of negative impacts eclipse these. Furthermore, these negative experiences stay with teachers for a long time resulting in difficulties switching-off from the distress. To combat these challenges of the job, whilst many teachers find social support can be a helpful resource, some teachers do not – this is motivated through fear of negative judgement from other colleagues and Seniors. In relation to teacher self efficacy as a supportive resource for teachers, this research found that it can be difficult to develop in the context of teachers attending to student mental health needs due to limited mental health training support for teachers. Furthermore, less…
author: Swain, Scott
language: eng
keywords: Mental Health, Wellbeing, Teacher Wellbeing, Resilience, Organisational Resilience, Bronfenbrenner, Ecological Systems Theory, Job Demands, Job Resources, JDR Model, Student Mental Health, Case Study
license: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/4239288d-26d3-4704-9cde-92ba227851c8/download
license: http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved
date published: 2025-01-31
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:18Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.123349