Introduction

This study explores the role of the teacher in working with student health in high school. Teachers have been identified as crucial in promoting student health and wellbeing but it is traditionally not considered a teacher task. The article presents findings from an empirical study in which the views of the teachers are in focus.

School is considered a suitable and vital arena for working with the health of children and young people.  This can be done by implementing various programmes and initiatives lead by teachers or other professionals, or in a more informal way in the everyday school practice.

Student health has been and still is a concern for the Student Health Services (SHS). It is however with the teacher that the students spend most of their time in school. A good relationship with the teacher, support from the teacher in meeting academic demands and classroom participation has proven beneficial to student health. There is also a well-documented reciprocal relationship between health and academic achievement. Overall, the same factors which promote learning, also promote health.

In Sweden, where the study is set, student health work “shall be primarily preventive and promoting” (Education Act, 2010:800). Teachers are not explicitly tasked with health promotion but stipulated to cooperate with the SHS regarding student health. While the teacher is not presented as a central actor in the Education Act, other guiding documents highlight the teacher as important for student health. Teachers thus have a role in working with student health but what this role entails is not clear in the governing documents.

The aim of the article is to contribute knowledge about how Swedish high school teachers describe their role(s) in working with student health.

Brief Previous Research

Student health work has been empirically explored before but the role of the teacher in this work is a field in need of further empirical investigation. Much of the research regarding teachers’ involvement in student health work examines various programmes and initiatives implemented at the respective schools. The focus of this article is how teachers describe their role in the informal, everyday student health work, not in a programme or an initiative.

Teacher involvement in health promotion has been criticized. Student mental health promotion can be regarded as an additional task to the existing abundance of teacher tasks. Expanding the role of the teacher is criticized as it can cause added stress and pressure. Lastly, teachers’ increased awareness of mental health problems among children and adolescents, can result in teachers starting to identify many behaviors and experiences previously deemed ordinary or understandable, as indicative of mental health problems

This study contributes knowledge about how teachers describe their roles in student health promotion. This knowledge can be used to improve student health promotion further and contribute added understanding of the complex professional role of the teacher.  

Theoretical Points of Departure

The study is based on theories of social constructivism in which social phenomena are understood and become active deeds by means of human interaction; people interpret, reinterpret, negotiate, and use various strategies to influence which interpretation takes precedence, thereby influencing how a phenomenon is understood.

The empirical data used in this article was collected in connection with a larger qualitative study conducted in two Swedish high schools. Ten teachers participated in the study, with teaching experience from between four and 22 years. The data was collected using semi-structured individual interviews where six open-ended questions guided the interviews. Follow-up questions were formulated in order to gain a deeper understanding of their answers. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. After the interviews were read through several times, sections of the interviews pertaining to the aim of the article were selected. These sections were read again and meaning units, i.e. statements that uncovered something related to the aim, were extracted. The extracted meaning units were condensed and coded, resulting in 102 codes. These codes were then grouped into themes, in an iterative process involving, re-reading of the selected interview sections as well as the whole interviews. The groupings were based on the relationship and underlying meanings regarding differences and similarities.

The teachers clearly recognize and describe their work with student health in the everyday teaching. Tentative results show one main theme and four themes describing the different internal roles of the teacher as health promotor. The main theme is Conscious use of relationship to facilitate health and learning. The themes are The role of a caring adult, The role of a coach, The role of a student centred pedagogical leader and The role of security creator. The purpose of all the internal roles mentioned above, is to create a professional relationship with the students which is health promoting. There are no colclusions yet, but it is clear that the teachers consider health promotion a teacher task, not in conflict with their professional role but rather integrated with it.

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