Mental health in Sweden is on the decline, with young people reporting the poorest outcomes. Reports show how schools fail in their preventive work when dealing with mental illness and that the burden of responsibility falls mainly on teachers who are forced to take initiative and thus are behind the few efforts that are made. The purpose of the study is to contribute with increased knowledge about how teachers are affected by their students’ struggle with mental health. Using an activity-pedagogical and social-cognitive theoretical approach and with qualitative content analysis, the results of five qualitative interviews with Swedish secondary school teachers are examined. The results of this study find that teachers are reporting a decline in mental health in their students and that they feel the weight of responsibility in dealing with this very complex issue. The results show that teachers tend to seek help and support via their teacher colleagues rather than the mental health professionals in the student health team. The interviews also showed that teachers in a lot of cases can tell early on when their students are experiencing symptoms of mental illness and in doing so take it upon themselves to adapt their planning and teaching to facilitate the student’s learning. Mental illness is however not considered when grading. Teachers are missing the resources to support students in mental illness and the burden of responsibility needs to be shared with professionals who are trained in and equipped with dealing with mental health.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-500370 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Kelly, Caroline |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Examensarbete vid Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier |
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