Teachers as mental health promoters: a study of teachers' understanding of the concept of mental health

Based on results from a mixed method approach, using focus group interviews (N = 15) and survey research (N = 1575, this paper explores Norwegian K12 teachers' understanding of the concept of mental health. The theoretical framework of analysis is a socio-ecological and systemic perspective, seeing conceptual understanding as a result of a complex interplay between factors on individual, organizational and state/society levels. Existing research indicates that mental health is an unfamiliar term in a school context, and often negatively loaded. Our results support this, but show significant differences in school type, where teachers in higher grades report more frequent use of the term, mor…