Globally, children and adolescents are facing the burden of increasing mental health and wellbeing challenges. As such, mental health and wellbeing are major focal points of current policy and research in the education sector across Europe and worldwide. Teachers are faced with increasing expectations to support student mental health and wellbeing  and implement health promotion interventions. Such expectations add to the already high demands of their role. The resulting stress contributes to difficulties in attracting candidates to the profession, burnout, and retention, which are contributing factors to the worldwide teacher crisis (UNESCO, 2022).

Understanding in more depth the factors related to teachers’ provision of mental health and wellbeing support for their students is paramount. These factors are wide-ranging, and to date, no unified conceptual model or set of constructs has been developed to describe a teacher’s readiness and willingness to provide mental health and wellbeing support to students.

This paper presents a research project aimed at defining readiness to support student mental health and wellbeing and developing a conceptual model to inform measurement of the relevant constructs. The first phase of the research, a scoping review, is the primary focus of this presentation. The objective of the review is to answer the following research question: How has teachers’ readiness to support student mental health and wellbeing been conceptualised and defined?

While there are many conceptualisations of general readiness in various disciplines, it is unclear what teacher readiness to support student mental health and wellbeing is or how to measure it. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) has informed this research by providing a framework that highlights the importance of internal cognitive factors, attitudes, and beliefs in influencing behaviour. This contributes to the rationale of looking beyond mental health literacy to explore other internal and dispositional factors that may contribute to teachers’ readiness to support student mental health and wellbeing.  

The scoping review phase, which is the primary focus of this paper, will be conducted using the methodological framework for scoping reviews developed by Arksey and O'Malley (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005). This process entails identifying the research question, identifying relevant studies, study selection, charting the data, and collating, summarizing, and reporting results.

Findings relating to how the concept of readiness to support student mental health and wellbeing has been defined and measured across disciplines, countries and contexts will be discussed.

Achieving the primary aim of the study, to define and conceptually model teachers’ readiness to support student health and wellbeing, has the potential to influence teacher selection processes, initial teacher education, professional learning, and personal growth and add to the global discourse on student wellbeing. As such, this presentation is highly relevant for education researchers and practitioners focusing on student wellbeing outcomes, teacher selection, initial teacher education, or the assessment of classroom readiness.

The overall research design is a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design in which the qualitative phase of the research informs the quantitative phase. The methodology used in this research aligns with the instrument development variant of a sequential exploratory design, in which the qualitative phase informs the development of a measurement instrument in the quantitative phase (Creswell, 2018). The fundamental theoretical positioning for the proposed study is empiricism, where teacher readiness for supporting student mental health, mental health literacy, and traits and dispositional factors are considered measurable and observable. The paradigm underpinning this research is post-positivism; where objective measurement of reality is coupled with subjective consideration. Post-positivism is suited to a focus on selected variables, detailed measurement, and theory verification (Creswell, 2018). The scoping review phase, which is the primary focus of this paper, will be conducted using the methodological framework for scoping reviews developed by Arksey and O'Malley (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005), outlined below. 1. Identifying the research question 2. Identifying relevant studies 3. Study selection 4. Charting the data 5. Collating, summarizing, and reporting results A comprehensive search strategy will be implemented to capture relevant sources from across disciplines. The databases to be searched include PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, as well as grey literature sources (Overton, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, and A+ Education (Informit)). To be included in the review, sources of evidence must relate to teacher readiness or capability to support student wellbeing and mental health in primary and secondary schools and include relevant definitions, constructs and/or measures. The number of papers found in the search will be documented and displayed in a PRISMA flow diagram (Tricco et al., 2018). The diagram will outline the number of papers included and excluded at each stage of the initial screening process. Content analysis will be used to identify concepts, constructs and definitions in the papers. A synthesis of definitions of the concept of readiness to support student mental health and wellbeing will address the first research question. For construct measurement, findings will be presented in an evidence table containing the following categories: definition, measure, outcome variable/s, psychometric properties, and key findings. Limitations of the study will also be considered in detail, including potential bias introduced through the inclusion of grey literature sources and the complexity of transdisciplinary research.

In this presentation, initial findings from the scoping review will be presented. The number of papers found in the search will be documented and displayed in a PRISMA flow diagram (Tricco et al., 2018). The diagram will outline the number of papers included and excluded at each stage of the initial screening process. A synthesis of findings relating to how the concept of teacher readiness or capability to support student mental health has been defined in the literature will be discussed. A conceptual model will also be presented, defining the key constructs, variables and relationships relating to readiness to support student mental health and wellbeing. The presentation will also explore emerging trends and anomalies in the conceptualisation of this topic across geographic regions (e.g. Europe, North America, Australiasia), countries, contexts, and study disciplines. There are wide-reaching implications of developing a shared understanding of teachers' readiness to support student wellbeing and mental health. This knowledge can assist teacher education providers in designing appropriate curriculum and resources for future teachers, ensuring their preparedness to address mental health and wellbeing concerns in their teaching practice. Such efforts can contribute to reducing burnout, enhancing retention rates, improving student well-being outcomes, and fostering thriving classroom environments (UNESCO, 2022). Additionally, by understanding their own readiness, teachers can engage in self-reflection regarding their well-being and self-reflective practices, as well as their ability to support student well-being. Consequently, they will be better equipped to respond to student mental health needs, implement school-wide health interventions, and access resources and professional development opportunities to enhance their teaching practice.

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