Student Teacher Well-Being: Deepening Understanding and Building Support

Teacher recruitment, retention and well-being are ongoing issues in Europe and internationally. Well-being and stress-related issues relating to student teachers are not well researched, possibly because the high-stress nature of the programmes has been normalised. However, there is a growing body of literature on the well-being of qualified teachers which suggests that challenges begin during training and are linked to mental health problems. The teaching profession is a core resource in any national system, attempting to meet the challenges apparent in the early 21st century. However, in some countries, the profession is under pressure due to a lack of retention, and a long-term problem with recruitment. The participating institutions (University College Copenhagen, University of Eastern Finland and Bishop Grosseteste University) have been working together to explore student teacher well-being for two years.

This project bid seeks to build upon this work, further exploring the well-being and workload of student teachers in Europe and applying these insights to the building of support structures through the development of toolkits. Its objectives are therefore to:

​1. Deepen understanding of well-being issues affecting student-teachers in the three contexts (Denmark, Finland and the UK);

2. Understand the needs of stakeholders in developing support for student-teacher well-being

​3. Build support resources/toolkits for Initial Teacher Education providers, student teachers and school-based mentors.