Academics at the University of Winchester have launched a major survey to look at the mental wellbeing of teachers in UK schools.
The study is a collaboration between the University’s Department of Psychology and Institute of Education and will ask teachers about their job demands and priorities as well as their mental wellbeing.
Despite many recent reports of the profession being under-paid and schools understaffed, there has been little attention given to the mental health pressures faced by teachers compared with a huge raft of research into the mental welfare of pupils.
Dr Liam Satchell, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University, said: "This is an area which is surprisingly under-researched, with very few recent attempts to capture UK teachers’ current experience of their job demands.
"The results of this work will be published in peer reviewed journals as part of wider work we are doing to provide expert advice to policy makers."
The study, which is open to all school teachers of pupils under 19, has received support from Hampshire County Council which has sent out links to the survey in newsletters to teachers.
Almost 300 teachers have taken part so far.
However, Dr Satchell is keen to widen the survey base beyond Hampshire.
The survey is in two halves. The first is a questionnaire, requiring short answers, which should take around 15 minutes to complete. The second part, which is optional, allows the teachers to offer more in-depth responses.
Teachers interested in taking part can find the survey by following this link.
The study comes on the back of a recent paper published by Dr Satchell on disruptive behaviour in classrooms, which teachers say takes up a significant amount of their time and attention.
Dr Satchell argues that much of the existing research in this area has ‘medicalised’ disruptive behaviour in classrooms while overlooking the part played by normal personality traits.
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