Contemporary issues in mental health and wellbeing in education

Research Intelligence issue 146

This issue’s special section, guest edited by Jonathan Glazzard and Samuel Stones, presents four articles from leading UK academics that assess the mental health and wellbeing issues facing school pupils and staff today, explore the best means of conceptualising and conducting robust, effective research on problems of wellbeing, and arrive at recommendations for how we should act on those findings.

Even before the Covid-19 crisis, mental health and wellbeing were among the most pressing issues facing the education sector, with rates of emotional distress growing among children, relentless workloads wearing on teachers, and the effects of underfunding and childhood poverty felt ever more keenly. However, the editors argue, our collective experiences of the current pandemic must sharpen our focus on these issues and, just as importantly, harden our resolve to address them. This special section includes the following articles.

• Wellbeing during multiple and multi-dimensional primary–secondary transitions |  Divya Jindal-Snape
• ‘What can we do but struggle?’: Developing a whole-school and whole-system approach to promoting staff wellbeing |  Suzanne Culshaw & Josie Maitland
• Wellbeing challenges and resources for ITE trainees: International comparisons |  Aimee Quickfall, Emma Clarke & Shaun Thompson
• Reimagining mental wellbeing strategies in schools |  Michelle Jayman

Also in this issue, Marie Brennan describes the serious challenges facing education research and the research workforce in Australia, arising from policy as well as Covid-19; we share further details about this September’s entirely virtual BERA Annual Conference; and BERA treasurer Sean Hayes explains why the Association remains financially secure and able to overcome the challenges of the past year and continue to support our members’ interests remain secure despite the vicissitudes of the past year.