Wellbeing and the importance of going “out of the realm of the classroom”: secondary school teachers’ perspectives

Schools play a central role in supporting young people affected by mental health issues. This article reports a reflexive thematic analysis of focus group and interview data with English secondary teachers about their perspectives on mental health and well-being in schools. Data were collected during the pandemic year 2020–2021, with a research focus on evolving school practice for wellbeing. Our results show that although teachers recognised a shift towards school leadership and policymaking that acknowledged mental health, they also identified barriers that undermined attempts to embed wellbeing practices in their schools. Firstly, they expressed frustration with neoliberal education, and how it works against wellbeing, and specifically against relationality, which was seen to underpin good mental health. Secondly, teachers envisioned wellbeing education as breaking with the boundaries of the typical classroom space, structurally, physically and pedagogically. The boundaries described were shaped by an educational purpose logic of “doing well” in terms of performance measures, whereas teachers articulated solutions as stepping outside the traditional limits of the classroom and curriculum, a move corresponding to greater environmental and community awareness. In conclusion, we point to an expanded view of educational purpose and the application of a more ecological psychology to embolden wellbeing practice in schooling.