Teacher Wellbeing in the Context of Teachers Attending to Student Mental Health Needs: A Case Study of Three Secondary Schools in South England.
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 experienced teachers haven’t developed enough experience in the classroom to have developed a sense of self-efficacy in this context, nor have they received mental health training during their initial teacher training period. My research findings also support other research which highlight the desperate need for improved mental health training for teachers. Where my research differs from these others is that it explores the interrelationship between mental health training and teacher self-efficacy in the context of the emotional job demands teachers face when attending to student mental health needs. Without the right supportive resources in place within the workplace, teachers are at risk of facing serious health and welfare issues. Schools, as places of employment, need to recognise the impact that these sorts of stressors can have on teachers, including the unique challenges faced when using emotional labour to respond to student mental health needs. It is therefore critical that schools find ways to ensure that there are sufficient resources available for their staff to support them in their roles, especially in the context of the emotional job demands involved in teachers attending to student mental health needs. I was fortunate in this research to see firsthand what good schools look like when it comes to supporting their staff with challenging parts of the job such as attending to student mental health needs. As well as the empirical contribution my research makes to the field of education, it also offers a unique theoretical contribution via the conceptual framework used. This research is the first to apply the job demands-resources model to the context of teachers as mental health workers and explore the impact this part of the job can have on teacher wellbeing. Taking influence from Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, this research reflects not only on the demands and resources in teaching, but also the wider context in which teachers work, as well as the multiple relationships they must manage. Adopting Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (1979) in my research enabled me to explore how teacher wellbeing, and their individual experiences of attending to student mental health needs, is located within wider, interrelated exo, meso and micro – structures. I used the findings of my research to test my conceptual framework, which I later revise shaped by my findings. Whilst the Department for Education’s Staff Wellbeing Charter is a positive step forward for supporting teachers’ wellbeing in general, significantly more needs to be done by schools and the Government to better support teachers with the challenging demands they face in the role of attending to student mental health needs.
Mental Health, Wellbeing, Teacher Wellbeing, Resilience, Organisational Resilience, Bronfenbrenner, Ecological Systems Theory, Job Demands, Job Resources, JDR Model, Student Mental Health, Case Study
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