Abstract

The rise in the number of mental health disorders in children and young people is a growing concern worldwide. As young people spend much of their time in a school environment, educational institutions and teachers are more frequently being asked to support students struggling with these afflictions. Programs intended to increase teachers’ mental health literacy (MHL) have tried to equip them for this task. Previous research related to MHL has largely focused on quantitative means of assessing teachers’ MHL in the short-term, with little qualitative focus on their long-term teaching experiences, or on the retention and application of these skills in teachers’ day-to-day practice.
This thesis explores the lived experiences of seven Canadian teachers from a variety of teaching environments, and at various stages of their careers, who have taken MHL training. It investigates how their understanding of this MHL training has informed their teaching through semi-structured phone interviews that were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Four themes emerged from the research, including the need for 1) contextually relevant training, 2) role acceptance, 3) the feasibility of applying knowledge, and 4) self-efficacy.

The findings of this study are intended to improve future MHL programming, implementation, and ultimately early and improved mental health outcomes for students while also outlining directions for future research.