UNITED STATES AND CANADA TEACHER ACCREDITATION STANDARDS AND PREPARATION CURRICULUMS ON STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY

Karen Weston Betsy Levine Brown Kate Phillippo Susan Rodger

MHEDIC Spring 2015

Research from both Canada and the United States acknowledges a dramatic increase in child welfare caseloads during the decade 2000-2010 (Hudson and Levasseur, 2002; Leschied, Chiodo, Whitehead, &Hurley, 2006; Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, 2005; Trocmé et al., 2010; United States General Accounting Office, 2003)

Adolescent marijuana and prescription drug use increased in recent years (NIDA, 2012), Suicide rates of youth ages 10 and above have held steady over the last decade (CDCP, 2014) School personnel (including teachers) report 16% of our nation’s suspected abuse and neglect

cases (second only to legal and law enforcement personnel ) Pervasiveness of social-emotional issues that threaten student well-being and academic

achievement

Adjustment problems at school have been cited as a source of stress for children and families (Leschied, Brown, Rodger, denDunnen & Pickel, 2014)

Background Info

Teachers encounter school mental health indicators among their students through daily contact as well as when students seek support from them as trusted adults (e.g., Michie, 2009, 2012)

Current research in teacher education focuses on teacher learning modules that promote:

student-teacher relationships (Hamre et al., 2012; Howes et al., 2012),

awareness of specific student mental health issues such as suicide (Nadeem et al., 2006) and trauma (Jaycox et al., 2009)

Extant learning opportunities have not yet become ubiquitous in most teacher candidates’ preservice experiences (Koller & Bertel, 2006)

Background Info

How ready are teachers for encounters with student mental health issues?

Canada highlights the relevance of

mental health literacy for their teacher candidates (Rodger, Leschied & Hibbert, 2014)

United States preparation of candidates to

address students’ social-emotional matters has not been at the forefront (Phillippo, 2013), instead leaving that work to school-based mental health professionals

To what degree does teacher certification policy—which stands in the position to leverage change in teacher education programs—support the preparation of teacher candidates on school mental health needs of students?

How do certification policies and preparation curriculums vary across the United States and Canada?

How do national policy and professional contexts (primary/secondary education, teacher education) explain state/province-level requirements?

What role in promoting student mental health do these policies imply for teacher candidates, and how if at all do this role differ between countries (or province/state)?

Our Questions

Comparative policy analysis of teacher certification requirements

Provinces and states This stage: What do policies say? Next stage: Where do policies come from?

Review of requirements Standard protocol + emergent themes Two reviewers for each province/state

Method/Analysis

Steps

Key terms

Document accumulation

Protocol development

Review: methodology & literature

Step 1 Prepar

e Initial review & reflection

Consultation

Refinement

Step 2 Test

Analysis & cross-check

Here we are!

Step 3 Analys

eFindings

Implications:Teacher Education

Implications: Policy

Step 4 Report

Lots of mental health!! Iowa, Ontario

But. . . most often isolated in specific, non-generalist teaching positions

Age Non-core courses (Health, FACS) Teachers serving students with atypical “needs”

Vague opportunities exist that read like universal prevention

Culture and identity affirmation Relationship-building Social skills (as opposed to behavioral control)

Preliminary Findings

Few studies exist which examine preservice teacher preparation in the area of mental health.

Many questions have yet to be answered, and our research provides an important foundation for further study.

For example: Do teacher preparation programs in states/provinces with specific mental health policy language dedicate more time and resources to the mental health preparation of their teacher candidates than states/provinces without specific mental health policy language?

Implications for Research, Practice and Policy

If we find that policy language is important to time and resource allocation in teacher preparation, then there are further questions to be answered. For example: Do the practices of beginning teachers

who were trained in programs which dedicate substantive time and resources to mental health preparation differ from beginning teachers who trained in programs without this preparation? And if so, how?

Implications for Research, Practice and Policy

Preparation programs are driven by policy mandates, which may or may not reflect the current evidence base regarding “effective” teachers.

The field puts pressure on preparation programs to develop skills for the demands of the job, whether or not those skills are specified in policy or derived from research.

Implications for Research, Practice and Policy

Being able to close the gaps among policy, research, and practice begins with determining what is/is not happening in teacher preparation in regard to mental health.

Then, we can determine how preparation/lack of preparation influences teaching practice, and what differences such preparation/lack of preparation makes in the lives of teachers and children.

Implications for Research, Practice and Policy

Take a look at the data…

Do you see any gaps in our approach?

Do you see any potential obstacles?

Help!! What else??

Consultation

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