Lessons From the Shadows: Teachers Living With Mental Health Issues and Their Experiences of Stigma in the Workplace

• In Event: 75.041 - MTCC Roundtable Session 33
  In Roundtable Session: 75.041-14 - Lives of Teachers SIG Roundtable: Windows Into the Challenging Lives of Teachers

Abstract

Since the publication of Kirby and Keon’s (2006) Out of the Shadows at Last, public awareness of mental health issues is growing through national anti-stigma campaigns which are prioritized and promoted by the government of Canada. The field of education features prominently as an access point by which to reach children and youth. For all of the anti-stigma initiatives, mental illness as it relates to teacher remains limited to conversations about stress and burnout (Ministry of Education, 2013). Drawing on findings from the author’s MA thesis, and on Mad theory, this paper explores the ways in which 10 Ontario teachers living with self-identified mental health issues make meaning of their experiences of mental health-related stigma in the workplace.

Author

• Jenny Kassen, The University of Western Ontario