U.S. and Canada Teacher Certification Standards for Student Mental Health: A Comparative Case Study

• In Event: Teacher Stress and Coping: Teacher Preparation and Professional Development for Students' Mental Health Needs

Abstract

Teachers frequently report that students’ behavioral and mental health needs are a cause of their stress, and they feel unprepared to address these needs in the classroom (Williams et al., 2007). In a recent study Reinke and colleagues found that teachers cited a lack of experience and training related to the support of students’ mental health, and perceived school psychologists as having primary responsibility for mental health activities, including teaching social emotional learning (SEL) lessons to students (Reinke, Stormont, Herman, Puri, & Goel, 2011). This stands in contrast to Collie, Shapka and Perry’s (2012) findings that teachers who were more comfortable implementing SEL practices experienced lower stress, felt more efficacious in their teaching, and had higher overall job satisfaction. Another study revealed that both novice and experienced teachers received no training on how to manage job stress and recognize the signs of burnout (Koller, Osterlind, Paris, & Weston, 2004). At the onset of their careers, teachers seem thrust into stressful situations for which many are unprepared. In the United States, the preparation of teachers to understand and address the social emotional factors that impact teaching and learning has not been at the forefront (Phillippo, 2013). Canada, however, highlights the relevance of mental health literacy for their teacher candidates (Rodger, Leschied & Hibbert, 2014), and may be able to provide guidance on needed improvements in teacher preparation. A critical question at this juncture, therefore, concerns the degree to which teacher certification policy—which stands in the position to leverage needed change in teacher education programs—supports the preparation of teacher candidates to address students’ mental health needs. Secondly, we ask: how do certification policies and preparation curriculums vary across the United States and Canada?

This study uses comparative case study methods to analyze teacher certification standards and teacher preparation curriculums from the 10 Canadian provinces and the 50 United States.. We highlight areas where some states and provinces have advanced policies that support teacher readiness to address student mental health needs. We also indicate differences across countries’ school mental health policies. Findings document: 1) variation on how policy across countries speaks to and translate competencies of mental health for teacher candidates, 2) for U.S. teacher candidates, mental health language was present in the standards for certification for teaching in specific school-based roles (i.e., special education, deaf/HOH, visually impaired, gifted and talented), but less so for general educators, 3) for U.S. teacher candidates, course content tends to highlight problem-oriented knowledge, such as that related to atypical learning needs or identifiable social-emotional issues, and 4) in Canadian provinces accreditation standards, the mental health language addresses teachers’ knowledge and understanding as both universal wellness (e.g., resilience, stress management, reflection) and intervention supports for students having difficulties (e.g., distress, stigma, accessing needed supports beyond the teacher). Implications for research and interdisciplinary practice are elucidated based on findings, addressing differences in language across policies both between countries, as well as between provinces and states.

Authors

• Karen J. Weston, Columbia College

• Elizabeth Levine Brown, George Mason University

• Kate L. Phillippo, Loyola University Chicago

• Susan C. Rodger, University of Western Ontario