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Caribbean Journal of Education

Teachers' Self-disclosures: Insights into Mental Health

Pages: 
182-198
Publication Date: 
September 2013
Issue: 
Abstract: 

The psychosocial environment in a classroom impacts on the experiences of all students. That environment is mostly influenced by the emotional stability of the teacher. Teachers with mental health problems can hurt their students. It is therefore critical that teachers’ mental health and wellbeing be considered as an important area for research. Despite the fact that the mental health concept refers to everyone, within the context of the Caribbean school, there seems to be a perception demonstrated through common practice, that mental health interventions in the school should be directed exclusively to the student population. Counselling programmes at primary schools, for example, cater mostly for students, whilst members of staff are given little or no consideration. This paper presents self-disclosed health related issues of four cohorts of primary school teacher trainees in Trinidad and Tobago. The paper further highlights the connection between the teachers’ issues and mental health. Thereafter, a case is put forward to have school health interventions in Caribbean primary schools provide for the assessment and management of teachers’ mental health. Early findings show that the preservice primary teachers’ experiences are related to strands of mental health determinants.

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