Editorial

Abstract

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