Early career teachers’ learning about promoting health and wellbeing: a narrative study

In Scotland, as with many other countries, the requirement to promote pupil health and wellbeing is the responsibility of all, yet little is known about how early career teachers learn to meet this responsibility. This two-year study followed five secondary school teachers from their Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) year to the end of their first year in school as probationary teachers. A narrative approach was adopted to explore how participants’ conceptualisations of health and wellbeing developed over time, and to gain insight into what contributed to this development. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Following this, and guided by the work of Rodríguez-Dorans and Jacobs, narrative portraits were constructed for each participant. The narratives revealed that participants’ conceptualisation of health and wellbeing deepened between the PGDE year and the end of their induction year. In particular, participants developed a broader understanding of relationships through their induction year, with greater attention paid to their role, and the role of other teachers, in developing positive relationships. Furthermore, across both contexts, the participants revealed that the process of learning how to promote health and wellbeing was multi-faceted and complex, with various life experiences and different schools adding to this complexity. For the future, we recommend that teacher educators working in the domain of health and wellbeing begin with the teachers – exploring their personal and professional identities – past, current and future, and the various ways they connect with their lives and learning in schools.