Editorial

Preparing the teaching workforce for school mental health promotion

As many as 20% of students face mental health issues that impede their classroom functioning (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2009), prompting teachers and teacher educators to develop their capabilities to understand and promote positive mental health among their students. Teachers are often aware of mental health issues present in their students’ lives, recognize the strong relationship between students’ socio-emotional functioning and academic success and feel that instructional activities should promote students’ social-emotional as well as intellectual development (Hoagwood et al., 2007; Phillippo & Kelly, 2014). Towards these ends, teachers seem willing to participate in the delivery of universal mental health promotion activities (Franklin, Kim, Ryan, Kelly, & Montgomery, 2012; Reinke, Stormont, Herman, Puri, & Goel, 2011). Overwhelmingly, however, teachers feel that they lack the capacity to promote student mental health or to provide the specific mental health supports required for struggling students to flourish in today’s classrooms (Froese-Germaine & Riel, 2012; Hoagwood et al., 2007; Kidger, Gunnell, Biddle, Cambell, & Donovan, 2010; Koller, Osterlind, Paris, & Weston, 2004; Martinussen, Tannock, & Chaban, 2011; Mazzer & Rickwood, 2015; Nyutu & Bertel, 2012; Phillippo, 2013; Reinke et al., 2011; Stoiber, 2011).

If teachers are to take part in promoting positive student mental health, they must have access to relevant, quality professional learning opportunities. Recently, researchers, who have recognized this imperative, have created a space for the scholarship of teachers’ learning about student mental health. For example, Kutcher, Wei, McLuckie, and Bullock (2013) demonstrated a statistically significant increase in the knowledge and attitudes of Nova Scotian teachers as a result of mental health literacy training (one full day plus a self-study module) in preparation for the implementation of a Grade 9 mental health curriculum. Similarly, Hussein and Vostanis (2013) found that after six, two-hour training sessions, Pakistani teachers showed an increase in their knowledge about and recognition of common mental illnesses in children. Other researchers have demonstrated the impact of intervention-specific trainings that utilize systematic coaching in order to increase teachers’ learning and their subsequent efficacy during intervention implementation (Bradshaw, Pas, Goldweber, Rosenberg, & Leaf, 2012; Frey et al., 2013; Reinke et al., 2012; Simon & Ward, 2014).

This special issue features contemporary research that illuminates the ongoing work of professionals to build capacity across the teaching workforce in the areas of student mental health. The articles included focus on pre-service teacher preparation, in-service teacher professional learning, local and federal teacher preparation or teacher education policy, and teacher and mental health practitioner collaboration.

The article by Phillippo and Blosser examines the ways in which teacher candidates understand their psychosocial support responsibilities and demonstrate their knowledge and skill related to student psychosocial issues. Through their study of a six-week pre-service practicum course unit, they raise important issues regarding how and why teacher education can contribute to teachers’ capabilities to both recognize and address student psychosocial needs in the classroom. They also illustrate the need for teacher education programmes to provide a supportive and engaging environment that promotes exploration of their expectations, intentions and reservations about working with students experiencing psychosocial distress.

The contribution by Dineen and colleagues describes an innovative Urban Teaching Cohort Program for pre-service teacher education. The authors highlight and respond to the critical issues in teaching in urban environments, across cultural and socio-economic diversity, and within communities. The immersive community experience that provides the context for this unique programme allows for the development of different kinds of knowledge, skills and values that support engagement and capacity development for new teachers.

Crooks, Jaffe and Rodriguez explore teacher candidates’ responses to instruction focused on bullying and violence. The instruction candidates received was more than data and intervention procedures; it aimed to build teachers’ empathy and efficacious responses as well. Candidates not only demonstrated improved knowledge and skills, but also showed a reduction in moral disengagement from student situations such as bullying, dating violence and intrafamilial violence, indicating an increase in their belief that intervention in such situations is their responsibility. These findings challenge teacher educators to develop learning opportunities that surpass superficial mental health knowledge and skill transmission, and that socialize teachers as powerful agents of student well-being.

Fortier and colleagues describe the systemic efforts of the Ontario SMH ASSIST programme to provide consistent, thoughtful mental health competency training and support to educators across this Canadian province. Drawing from implementation science literature to ensure fidelity to and buy-in for their programme, the authors present a case study on how this educator training in mental health literacy is brought to scale. This work speaks to the evidence above, denoting how mental health literacy among educators is a critical component of effective school mental health service delivery.

Finally, Mellin and colleagues shed light on the experiences of teachers who participate in interdisciplinary collaborations through Expanded School Mental Health (ESMH), a school-family-community systems model of mental health services and supports. They use a social capital lens with a sample of 384 teachers to investigate how these teachers participated in ESMH collaborations, why they chose to participate, and what benefits they perceived from their participation. Their findings highlight the critical role that teachers play in mental health work within schools.

These works fill gaps in knowledge about teacher learning related to student mental health and socio-emotional wellness, but more is needed to deepen this field’s evidence base. The field needs systematic lines of inquiry that can inform the practice of preparing and educating teachers in the area of mental health. Together, this issue’s articles speak to the urgency of efforts to expand teachers’ knowledge, skills and vision regarding students’ mental health and socio-emotional wellness needs. Teacher preparation programmes are positioned to nurture teacher candidates’ growth in these areas prior to their entry the profession. Further, in-service professional learning experiences provide an opportunity to blend mental health and wellness content into established professional development in ways that could inform data-driven outcomes. Such endeavours will require focused, sustained and productive conversations among policy-makers, educators and institutions of higher learning as well as state- and district-level education representatives. Our goal is that this special issue will expand the body of literature that aims to inspire and inform those conversations, towards the end that teachers may capably make use of their unique, rich potential to promote positive mental health among their students.

Elizabeth Levine Brown
George Mason University
[email protected]
Katherine Phillippo
Loyola University Chicago
Susan Rodger
Western University
Karen J. Weston
University of Missouri