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Supporting teachers' mental health: an evaluation study

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Supporting teachers' mental health: an evaluation study

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Content Running head: SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH i

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH: AN EVALUATION STUDY

by

Shoshana Cohen-Fraade

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

December 2019

Copyright 2019 Shoshana Cohen-Fraade

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH ii

DEDICATION
This study is dedicated to my parents, Ellen Cohen and Steven Fraade, and my brother
and sister, Tani Cohen-Fraade and Liora Cohen-Fraade. Your chosen professions are a true
source of inspiration to me, as is the way that you live your daily lives. Thank you for all your
support these past few years and for your regular check-ins. I feel lucky to be surrounded by a
family of such smart, loving, and food-obsessed people as you.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are several people without whom this work would have been impossible. Thank
you to my dissertation chair, Dr. Angela Hasan, and to my co-chair, Dr. Susanne Foulk, for the
many hours you both spent reading, re-reading, making suggestions, and answering my many,
many questions. Thank you to my two committee members, Dr. Anne-Marie Hoxie and Dr.
Eugenia Mora-Flores, for sharing your expertise and suggestions for data collection and analysis
amidst your already busy lives. Thank you to Rebecca Abramson, for making suggestions to
improve my survey, for sending it to faculty members, and for responding so calmly and quickly
to my many e-mails. Thank you to my manager, Dr. Annie Ferrell, for your frequent
encouragement and for modelling what it takes to complete a doctoral degree while working full
time, all with grace and a sense of humor.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. vii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................1
Introduction to the Problem of Practice ...............................................................................1
Organizational Context and Mission ...................................................................................1
Organizational Goals ...........................................................................................................2
Related Literature.................................................................................................................3
Importance of the Evaluation ...............................................................................................4
Description of Stakeholder Groups ......................................................................................5
Stakeholder Groups’ Performance Goals.............................................................................6
Stakeholder Group for the Study .........................................................................................6
Purpose of the Project and Questions ..................................................................................7
Methodological Framework .................................................................................................8
Definitions............................................................................................................................8
Organization of the Project ..................................................................................................9

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .................................................................10
Influences on the Problem of Practice ...............................................................................10
Teacher Depression ................................................................................................10
Teacher Anxiety .....................................................................................................12
Teacher Burnout.....................................................................................................13
Newer Teachers’ Mental Health ............................................................................15
Working Environment ...........................................................................................17
Impact of Teachers’ Mental Health on Students and Schools ...............................18
Role of Stakeholder Group of Focus .................................................................................20
Clark and Estes’ (2008) Knowledge, Motivation, and Organizational Influences
Frameworks........................................................................................................................20
Stakeholder Knowledge, Motivation, and Organizational Influences ...............................22
Knowledge and Skills ............................................................................................22
Knowledge Influences ...............................................................................22
Identifying Symptoms of Mental Health Concerns ...................................22
Understanding the Higher Prevalence of Mental Health
Concerns Among New Teachers ...............................................................23
Motivation ..............................................................................................................25
Expectancy-Value Theory .........................................................................26
Faculty Members’ Utility Value ................................................................26
Attribution Theory .....................................................................................27
Faculty Members’ Attribution ...................................................................27
Organization ...........................................................................................................28
General Theory ..........................................................................................28
Stakeholder Specific Factors......................................................................29
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH v

Conceptual Framework: The Interaction of Stakeholders’ Knowledge and
Motivation and the Organizational Context .......................................................................31
Conclusion .........................................................................................................................36

CHAPTER THREE: METHODS ..................................................................................................37
Participating Stakeholders .................................................................................................37
Survey Sampling Criteria and Rationale............................................................................38
Criterion 1 ..............................................................................................................38
Criterion 2 ..............................................................................................................38
Survey Sampling (Recruitment) Strategy and Rationale ...................................................39
Data Collection and Instrumentation .................................................................................40
Surveys ...................................................................................................................40
Additional Sources of Data ....................................................................................41
Data Analysis .....................................................................................................................42
Validity and Reliability ......................................................................................................43
Ethics..................................................................................................................................44
Limitations and Delimitations ............................................................................................46

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND FINDINGS .........................................................................48
Participating Stakeholders .................................................................................................48
Results ................................................................................................................................49
Knowledge Results ................................................................................................49
Motivation Results .................................................................................................55
Organizational Results ...........................................................................................59
Findings..............................................................................................................................62
Attitudes Toward Advisement ...........................................................................................64
Academic Advisement ...........................................................................................64
Non-Academic Advisement ...................................................................................65
Mental Health Knowledge Versus Practice .......................................................................67
Faculty Members’ Mental Health Knowledge .......................................................67
Faculty Members’ Practice ....................................................................................69
Attitudes and Beliefs About Organizational Supports .......................................................70
More Support for Faculty Members ......................................................................70
More Support for Teachers ....................................................................................71
Conclusion .........................................................................................................................72

CHAPTER FIVE: RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................74
Organizational Context and Mission .................................................................................75
Organizational Performance Goal ......................................................................................76
Description of Stakeholder Groups ....................................................................................76
Goal of the Stakeholder Group for the Study ....................................................................77
Purpose of the Project and Questions ................................................................................77
Recommendations for Practice to Address KMO Influences ............................................78
Knowledge Recommendations ..............................................................................78
Introduction ................................................................................................78
Faculty Members’ Declarative Knowledge About Mental
Health Concerns and Symptoms ................................................................79
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH vi

Faculty Members’ Knowledge of the Prevalence of Mental Health
Concerns ....................................................................................................80
Motivation Recommendations ...............................................................................81
Introduction ................................................................................................81
Faculty Utility Value and Mental Health ...................................................82
Faculty Members’ Attributions ..................................................................84
Organization Recommendations ............................................................................85
Introduction ................................................................................................85
Cultural Setting and Mental Health Counselors ........................................85
Integrated Implementation and Evaluation Plan ................................................................86
Implementation and Evaluation Framework ..........................................................86
Organizational Purpose, Need, and Expectations ..................................................87
Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators ................................................................88
Level 3: Behavior ...................................................................................................89
Critical Behaviors ......................................................................................89
Required Drivers ........................................................................................90
Organizational Support ..............................................................................91
Level 2: Learning ...................................................................................................92
Learning Goals ...........................................................................................92
Program ......................................................................................................93
Evaluation of the Components of Learning ...............................................94
Level 1: Reaction ...................................................................................................95
Evaluation Tools ....................................................................................................96
Immediately Following the Program Implementation ...............................96
Delayed for a Period After the Program Implementation ..........................96
Data Analysis and Reporting .................................................................................97
Summary ................................................................................................................99
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Approach ....................................................................100
Limitations and Delimitations ..........................................................................................102
Limitations ...........................................................................................................102
Delimitations ........................................................................................................103
Future Research ...............................................................................................................104
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................105

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................108

APPENDIX A ..............................................................................................................................117

APPENDIX B ..............................................................................................................................119

APPENDIX C ..............................................................................................................................121

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH vii

ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to assess faculty members’ attitudes, actions, and beliefs
with regards to supporting teachers’ mental health. An online survey was administered to faculty
members at a graduate school of education to determine the knowledge, motivation, and
organizational factors influencing the problem of practice. The researcher found gaps in faculty
members’ knowledge and motivation as well as larger organizational gaps, indicating that not all
faculty members’ possess the necessary knowledge and skills to support teachers’ mental
health. The researcher recommends a training program to specifically target these gaps, in order
to improve faculty knowledge and motivation, in addition to more widespread organizational
support for teachers’ mental health.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 1

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Introduction of the Problem of Practice
A substantial proportion of teachers in United States public schools experience a state of
decreased mental health. A recent study of U.S. public school teachers showed that of the 339
surveyed, 32% displayed current symptoms of depression with 13% having thoughts of suicide
(Schonfeld & Bianchi, 2016). Furthermore, there is evidence of an overlap between depression
and burnout, with 86% of teachers with depression also exhibiting symptoms of burnout
(Schonfeld & Bianchi, 2016). Studies indicate that newer teachers in particular tend to exhibit
more symptoms of depression and anxiety than their more experienced counterparts, who may
have learned coping mechanisms for the stress that they experience on the job (Steinhardt, Smith
Jaggars, Faulk, & Gloria, 2011). Given the projected increase in the number of teachers in the
United States (Hussar & Bailey, 2013) and connections between retention and factors such as
burnout (Fisher, 2011), teachers’ mental health should be a priority for any organization working
with novice teachers.
Organizational Context and Mission
Graduate School of Education (pseudonym to maintain study site’s anonymity) was
founded in 2011 in New York to teach “teachers and school leaders to develop in all students the
academic skills and strength of character needed to succeed in college and life.” Graduate
School of Education was the first independent graduate school of education to receive
accreditation in New York in over 80 years and was created to serve district and charter school
teachers pursuing alternative route teaching certification. In practice, this means that graduate
students are full-time, novice classroom teachers who fulfill their degree requirements at night
and on weekends, through a blended online and in-person curriculum.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 2

Graduate School of Education has expanded significantly since its founding, currently
serving approximately 3,500 graduate students (both teachers and school leaders) at campuses in
ten different states. While Graduate School of Education runs certification programs whose foci
range from special education to leadership, the majority of its students are working towards a
two-year Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree which is intended to reflect the more
practice-based approach of the institution, in addition to their state-required teaching
certification. Of the four hundred students in Graduate School of Education’s MAT program,
26% identify as black or African American, 8% identify as Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific
Islander, 25% identify as white, and 13.5% identify as Hispanic or Latino, with the remaining
27.5 choosing not to identify their race or ethnicity. The student body is made up of 67.2%
students identifying as female and 31% identifying as male. For the 2018-2019 academic year,
the Graduate School had a 23% attrition rate, with 14% of students who left citing certification
as a reason, 12% personal, 14% citing academic, and 7% medical (Relay GSE, 2019). While
these numbers are not explicitly tied to mental health, they do provide some insight into the
reasons behind teacher attrition at Graduate School.
Organizational Goals
Although Graduate School of Education has not set one specific goal tied to graduate
students’ mental health, the New York campus and faculty are responsible for three related goals.
The first is focused on graduation, the second on overall graduate student satisfaction, and the
third on graduate students’ promoter scores (NPS), all of which are dependent on graduate
students’ mental health. For graduation, the goal is that 90-95% of all students will be ready to
graduate on time, in their final year of the program. For the satisfaction metric, it is that 85-90%
of our students will indicate that they are satisfied or highly satisfied with the overall quality of
faculty, as measured by a survey which graduate students take twice a year. And for NPS, the
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 3

goal is that each campus will show an end of year NPS of at least 25 and/or NPS growth of at
least 10 points from the spring semester of 2017 to the spring semester of 2018. These goals
were determined by Graduate School of Education’s leadership team and national deans and then
further refined by New York’s deans to meet the needs of the New York City campus. While
there have been previous iterations of these goals, they are adjusted every year depending on
whether the campus as a whole and Graduate School as a national organization met or exceeded
its goals in the previous year.
Although Graduate School of Education does not have a specific existing goal tied to
graduate student’s mental health, the graduation and retention goal is closely connected. As
teachers’ mental health has been linked to retention (Fisher, 2011), for the purposes of this study,
the organizational goal was that by January 2021, Graduate School of Education's New York
campus will have developed a resource for faculty members to help them in supporting teachers’
mental health needs. The achievement of this goal will be measured by reviewing the resources
offered to faculty members in January of 2021.
Related Literature
The literature shows that teachers may be at increased risk for mental health concerns
compared with the rest of the United States, as a result of the demands of their profession
(Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1997; Whitaker, Becker, & Herman, 2013). Ongoing stressors at
work, such as unsafe neighborhoods, relationships with colleagues, and unmotivated or
unprepared students may contribute to teachers’ feelings of anxiety and depression (Mahan et al.,
2010). In addition, many teachers with indications of depression also show evidence of burnout
(Schonfeld & Bianchi, 2016; Steinhardt, Smith Jaggars, Faulk, & Gloria, 2011), with women
reporting more chronic work stress and emotional exhaustion and high school teachers reporting
more depression and feelings of reduced personal accomplishment (Steinhardt, Smith Jaggars,
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 4

Faulk, & Gloria, 2011). Newer teachers have also been at the forefront of several studies,
displaying higher rates of depression and anxiety than their more experienced counterparts
(Devos, Dupriez, & Paquay, 2012; McLean, Abry, Taylor, Jimenez, & Granger, 2017).
Relatedly, multiple studies have found that teachers with more experience, better instructional
skills, and advanced qualifications (such as awards or higher levels of certification) tend to
experience fewer instances of mental health concerns (Pucella, 2011; Sandilos, Cycyk, Scheffner
Hammer, Sawyer, Lopez, & Blair, 2015; Steinhardt, Smith Jaggars, Faulk, & Gloria, 2011),
indicating that as they gain skills and experience, teachers may be less susceptible to burnout,
anxiety, and depression.
Importance of the Evaluation
The problem of novice teachers’ struggles with mental health is important to address for a
variety of reasons. First and foremost, teachers’ emotions have an impact on the students and
schools they serve. Teachers with higher rates of depressive symptoms have been found to
struggle more with instruction and classroom management (Sandilos et al, 2015). Students may
also grasp this link, perceiving a correlation between teachers’ emotions and their efficacy as
educators, with anxiety in particular being seen as a negative indicator for teacher quality
(Frenzel, Goetz, Stephens, & Jacob, 2009). In addition to impacting schools, it is important to
consider the effects of mental health concerns on teachers themselves. The National Center for
Health Statistics found that only 35.3% of people who self-identified as being depressed saw a
mental health professional, which, given the high rates of teacher depression (Whitaker, Becker,
Herman, & Gooze, 2013), places teachers at greater risk for non-treatment. As the number of
teachers in the United States is projected to increase by 15% between 2010 and 2021 (Hussar &
Bailey, 2013), it is important that teachers are provided with the support that they need to be
successful in their first few years and beyond.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 5

Description of Stakeholder Groups
There are three crucial stakeholder groups for ensuring teachers’ mental health and
developing a resource for faculty members to help them in supporting teachers’ mental health
needs; these are faculty members, members of the leadership team, and graduate students
themselves. Faculty members at the Graduate School of Education are in a unique position as
they serve multiple roles. Each faculty member works with a group of 5-60 graduate students for
the entire academic year, teaching them, serving as their academic advisor, and coaching them in
their classrooms. Because they serve as the primary point of contact for graduate students,
faculty members will be critical stakeholders in achieving the goal and in particular for
disseminating information about how to access the available resources. A second stakeholder
group, the members of Graduate School of Education’s New York leadership team, also take
responsibility for disseminating information (as they themselves serve as graduate students’
teachers, advisors, and coaches) as well as providing time and space for faculty members to plan
out how to present the resources to graduate students. Finally, graduate students comprise a third
important stakeholder group, whom faculty members and school leaders are ultimately serving.
While they are not responsible for meeting the goals assumed by faculty members and Graduate
School of Education leadership, they will be on the receiving end of faculty members’ support.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 6

Stakeholder Groups’ Performance Goals
Table 1
Organizational mission, global goal and stakeholder goals
Organizational Mission

The mission of Graduate School of Education is to teach teachers and school leaders to
develop in all students the academic skills and strength of character needed to succeed in
college and life.
Organizational Performance Goal

By January 2021, Graduate School of Education's New York campus will have developed a
resource for faculty members to help them in supporting teachers’ mental health needs. The
achievement of this goal will be measured by reviewing the resources offered to faculty
members in January of 2021.
Stakeholder Goal 1:
Faculty Members
Stakeholder Goal 2:
Leadership
Stakeholder Goal 3:
Teachers
By November 2020, 90% of
faculty members will have
explicitly discussed mental
health concerns and/ or
supports with teachers, either
during in-person classes or
one-on-one check ins.
Members of the leadership
team will have provided time
during Launch Week in
August 2020 for 100% of
faculty members to receive
training in mental health and
develop a plan for presenting
mental health resources to
teachers.
By February 2021, at least
10% of teachers will have
used or accessed the resources
around wellness, mental
health education, and support,
as determined by a survey.

Stakeholder Group for the Study
While all three stakeholder groups are crucial to Graduate School of Education’s success
as an organization and to teacher mental health, faculty members are the primary drivers of
graduate students’ academic advisement and success in the MAT program. For this reason, the
stakeholders of focus for this study were faculty members serving teachers enrolled in Graduate
School of Education’s MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) program in New York City, as they
were the largest group of instructors in Graduate School of Education’s longest-running
program. Faculty members’ goal is that by November 2020, 90% of faculty members will have
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 7

explicitly discussed mental health concerns and/ or supports with teachers, either during in-
person classes or one-on-one check-ins. Given that Graduate School of Education has only just
started to develop mental health resources teachers but does not yet have resources for faculty
members, this is a good initial goal that will contribute to graduate students’ mental health. Not
meeting this goal will mean that faculty members will not be presenting crucial resources, which
may, in turn, affect graduate students’ classroom teaching and overall academic performance at
Graduate School of Education.
Purpose of the Project and Questions
The purpose of this project is to evaluate the degree to which the Graduate School of
Education is meeting its goal that by January 2021, Graduate School of Education's New York
campus will have developed a resource for faculty members to help them in supporting teachers’
mental health needs. The analysis focused on knowledge, motivation and organizational
influences related to achieving the organizational goals. While a complete performance
evaluation would have focused on all stakeholders, for practical purposes the stakeholder group
of focus in this analysis was teachers in Graduate School of Education’s MAT (Master of Arts in
Teaching) program in New York City. As such, the questions that guided the evaluation study
were the following:
1. To what extent is the Graduate School of Education meeting its goal of developing a
resource for faculty members to help them in supporting teachers’ mental health needs?
2. What are faculty members’ knowledge and motivation related to discussing mental health
concerns with teachers?
3. What is the interaction between organizational culture and context and faculty members’
knowledge and motivation?
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 8

4. What are the recommendations for organizational practice in the areas of knowledge,
motivation, and organizational resources?
Methodological Framework
This project employed a quantitative approach to data gathering and analysis. Faculty
members at the Graduate School of Education’s knowledge and motivation were assessed using
surveys and a literature review. Research-based solutions were recommended and evaluated in a
comprehensive manner.
Definitions
Anxiety: Feelings of excessive fear and nervousness about a future occurrence (Parekh,
2017).
Burnout: As defined by Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter (1997), a “psychological syndrome
of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment.”
Depression: Can be categorized into three groups of symptoms: mood, cognitive, and
physical. Mood symptoms include feeling sad, depressed or irritable; cognitive symptoms
include difficulty concentrating or making decisions, and physical symptoms include loss of
appetite, loss of energy, and fatigue (Pratt & Brody, 2014).
Faculty member: an instructor at the Graduate School of Education, who teaches,
coaches, and provides academic advisement for 10-60 graduate students.
Mental health: Mental health is an individual’s emotional, psychological, and social well-
being, which affects how we think, act, and feel (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
2018). For the purposes of this study, three components of mental health concerns will be the
focus: depression, anxiety, and burnout.
New teacher: For the purposes of this study, a new teacher will be considered a teacher
with three or fewer years of experience. Since the majority of teachers enrolled in the Graduate
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 9

School of Education’s master’s program have three or fewer years of experience this is the
metric that will be used.
Organization of the Project
Five chapters were used to organize this study. This chapter provides the reader with the
key concepts and terminology commonly found discussions about supporting newer teachers’
mental health. In addition, the Graduate School of Education’s mission, goals and stakeholders
as well as the review of the evaluation framework is provided. Chapter Two provides a review of
current literature surrounding the scope of the study. Topics such as influences on teachers’
mental health and the potential role of faculty members in helping to support teachers’ mental
health are addressed. Chapter Three details the knowledge, motivation and organizational
influences on faculty members as well as the methodology in use, data collection and analysis. In
Chapter Four, the data and results are described and analyzed. Chapter Five provides
recommendations for practice based on data and literature, as well as recommendations for a
potential solution’ implementation and evaluation plan.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 10

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
This literature review will examine the problem of how to best support teachers’ mental
health. This is a vital subject to study because teachers’ emotions have an impact on the students
and the schools they serve, as well as on teachers themselves. This chapter will first present data
on mental health challenges that teachers face. It will then move on to discussing influences on
teacher’s mental health, such as duration of teaching career, school conditions, and type of
teacher preparation program. Then, it will review the potential role of faculty members in a
teacher preparation program in helping to support teachers’ mental health, followed by an
overview of the knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences’ lens used in this study.
Finally, the chapter will address faculty members’ knowledge, motivation and organizational
influences and complete the chapter by presenting the relevant conceptual framework.
Influences on the Problem of Practice
In this section, discussion will take place on the factors and variables that influence
teachers’ mental health. As the focus of this study is on three related (and sometimes comorbid)
types of mental health concerns: depression, anxiety, and burnout, the review of existing
literature will first focus on specific types of mental health concerns and then hone in on
literature pertaining to mental health concerns in new teachers more specifically. Following that,
working environment, one particular factor that influences teachers’ mental health, will be
explored before finishing with a review of the literature around the impact of teachers’ mental
health on students and schools.
Teacher Depression
Depression is one mental health challenge that impacts a little over 7% of the total
population of the United States (Pratt & Brody, 2014). However, there are opposing points of
view as to whether depression impacts teachers more than the rest of the population. While
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 11

some studies demonstrate that teachers present the same rates of depression as the population at
large, others show an increase in symptoms. For example, a 2016 study of 385 Canadian teacher
candidates showed similar incidents of self-reported depression as the population at large (Dods,
2016). However, this study was conducted based on participants’ self-reporting, which might
have led to error or bias. In addition, the teacher candidates in this study were not yet full-time
teachers and other studies suggest that depression may increase as teachers move from pre-
service training to full-time classroom responsibilities (McLean & Abry, 2017).
Further, teachers may experience higher rates of depression than the general population
(Borrelli, Benevene, Fiorilli, D’Amelio, & Pozzi 2014; Whitaker, Becker, Herman, & Gooze,
2013). A 2013 study of Head Start staff indicated that teachers present higher rates of depression
than the national average, with a 5.9% higher diagnosis of depression (by mental health
professionals) than national rates. In addition, this same study found that 24.4% of Head Start
staff had clinically significant depressive symptoms, as indicated by CES-D scores (Center for
Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Revised) greater than or equal to 16 (Whitaker, Becker,
Herman, & Gooze, 2013). The CES-D is a self-reporting depression scale developed to be used
with the general population that has been found to have high rates of reliability and validity
(Radloff, 1977). Other studies conducted using the CES-D with teachers indicate similar trends,
with one Italian study of elementary and middle school teachers finding that 49% of those
surveyed displayed symptoms of depression (Borrelli, Benevene, Fiorilli, D’Amelio, & Pozzi
2014). Together, these studies show that not only are teachers demonstrating higher rates of
depression, but that in some cases, this depression might be on the more severe end of the
spectrum.
Ferguson, Frost, and Hall (2012) found workload to be a significant mediating factor for
depression. In their study of 274 Canadian teachers, they discovered that workload, as indicated
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 12

by survey indicators “too much work,” “not enough time to do work,” “lack of time for
marking,” and “increase in workload” had the strongest correlation with depression as compared
with indicators indicating other symptoms such as difficulty sleeping, increased blood pressure,
and cold sweats (Ferguson et al., 2012). In fact, stress factors such as workload and student
behavior accounted for 1⁄4 of the variance in teachers’ self-reporting of depression (Ferguson et
al., 2012). This demonstrates that volume of work, in addition to student behavior, play a
significant role in teachers’ experiences with depression. Given the available data, it seems
likely that teachers may display higher rates of depression than the rest of the population,
potentially as a result of specific stressors associated with teaching. In addition to studies on
depression, multiple studies provide evidence of teachers’ experiences with anxiety.
Teacher Anxiety
Anxiety is defined as feelings of excessive fear and nervousness about a future
occurrence (Parekh, 2017) and may impact new teachers in particular. In their study of teachers
moving from pre-service training to full-time classroom responsibilities, McLean, Abry,
Jimenez, and Granger (2017) used the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD), which has
been found to be a valid measure for assessing anxiety (Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams, & Löwe,
2006). While they found overall levels of anxiety to be within the minimal severity category,
they also found that participants’ self-reported symptoms increased from when they first began
pre-service teaching to when they began full-time classroom teaching. This suggests some
connection between full-time teaching and higher rates of anxiety.
Riley (2009) found similar connections between less teaching experience and increased
levels of anxiety. In his study of 291 pre-service and experienced teachers (defined as having
five or more years of teaching experience), Riley found pre-service teachers to exhibit greater
levels of anxiety than their more experienced peers, as determined by Brennan, Clark, and
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 13

Shaver’s (1998) The Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire (ECR). These studies
show that new teachers may be more prone to symptoms of depression than experienced
teachers.
Research has determined that specific factors may contribute to teachers’ anxiety. In
their study of 274 Canadian teachers, Ferguson et al. (2012) found that factors such as workload,
as indicated by survey indicators “too much work,” “not enough time to do work,” “lack of time
for marking,” and “increase in workload” were significantly correlated with teachers’ anxiety, as
measured by teachers’ responses to a survey. In fact, stress factors such as workload and student
behavior accounted for ¼ of the variance in teachers’ self-reporting of symptoms of anxiety.
McLean and Abry (2017) found that teachers who perceived their school climates as less positive
showed steeper increases in rates of anxiety over time from pre-service to full-time teaching and
that social support from family and friends negatively correlated symptoms of anxiety during
full-time teaching. Mahan et al.’s study of secondary teachers (2010) used the State Anxiety
Inventory (S-Anxiety), which measures short-term anxiety episodes (Spielberger et al., 1983)
and found that higher levels of ongoing stressors at work such as teacher workload, preparation
time, school safety issues, administrative behavior or policies, and student behavior, were
associated with higher levels of anxiety. Taken together, these studies show that, much like
depression, particular school-related factors may contribute to teachers’ feelings of anxiety.
Burnout is another mental health concern that may impact teachers in particular.
Teacher Burnout
Burnout is a condition that particularly impacts professionals (like teachers) who work
with other people and experience a high degree of stress in their jobs (Maslach, Jackson, &
Leiter, 1997). Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter (1997) define burnout as “psychological syndrome
of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 14

among individuals who work with other people in some capacity” (p. 192). Maslach developed
the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to measure the three specific elements comprising
burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, and the
inventory was revised in its third edition to include a version specific to teachers (Maslach,
Jackson, & Leiter, 1997). Another widely used but more recent burnout inventory, the Shirom-
Melamed Burnout Measure (SMBM) (Shirom, 1989), has also been found to have adequate
internal consistency (Gerber et al., 2018; Shirom & Melamed, 2006).
Burnout may present in conjunction with other mental health concerns such as
depression. For example, Schonfeld and Bianchi (2016) found a connection between burnout
and depression in an internet study of 1,386 public school teachers, using the SMBM. In this
study, 9% of participants reported symptoms of burnout and among those teachers, 86% also met
criteria for depression. This indicates that teachers may exhibit symptoms of two mental health
concerns at once: both burnout and depression. Furthermore, teachers already experiencing
burnout are more likely to also experience depression.
Research also indicates that this trend may continue and even worsen over time. A
longitudinal study of 627 French teachers investigating burnout and depression using the MBI
found that teachers with increasing rates of depression also felt increased symptoms of burnout
(Bianchi, Schonfeld, & Laurent, 2015). When first surveyed, 28.9% of teachers experienced
burnout and depression, and when next surveyed 21 months later, 35.7% experienced burnout
and depression. The authors found that teachers exhibiting symptoms of high burnout and
depression at the time of the first survey had a 30.09 odds ratio of being burned out and a 17.98
odds ratio of being depressed at the time of the second survey (Bianchi, Schonfeld, & Laurent,
2015). This study not only supports the comorbidity of burnout and depression, but also shows
that teachers with symptoms of both are likely to retain and carry those symptoms into the future.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 15

While teachers overall may exhibit high rates of burnout, different populations of
teachers may display different burnout scores (McCarthy, Lambert, O'Donnell, & Melendres,
2009; Steinhardt, Smith Jaggars, Faulk, & Gloria (2011). For instance, a study of 13 U.S.
elementary schools found some increases in burnout symptoms among more experienced
teachers (McCarthy, Lambert, O'Donnell, & Melendres, 2009), while other studies found the
opposite effect (Fisher, 2011). In this same study, however, researchers found no significant
differences in burnout symptoms between teachers at different schools, indicating that burnout
may be a result of individual teacher experiences, and not attributable to specific school factors
(McCarthy, Lambert, O'Donnell, & Melendres, 2009). Steinhardt, Smith Jaggars, Faulk, &
Gloria (2011) investigated the differences in burnout for different populations and found that
among the teachers they surveyed, high school teachers reported more depression and reduced
personal accomplishment than their elementary and middle school teaching peers, while women
reported more chronic work stress and emotional exhaustion. These findings may be significant
as institutions that work with teachers begin to consider how to support teachers who display
symptoms of burnout. In addition to these particular sub-groups, research has shown that
beginning teachers may be more subject to other forms of reduced mental health.
Newer Teachers’ Mental Health
Newer teachers with three or fewer years of experience may be particularly prone to
types of reduced mental health such as depression, anxiety, and burnout (Fisher, 2011; McLean,
Abry, Taylor, Jimenez, & Granger, 2017). While McCarthy, Lambert, O'Donnell, and
Melendres (2009) saw increases in burnout symptoms among more experienced teachers, several
other studies have found the opposite to be true. For instance, a 2017 study tracking teachers’
mental health from pre-service training through their transition to the classroom showed an
increase over time in symptoms of depression and anxiety (McLean, Abry, Taylor, Jimenez, &
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 16

Granger, 2017), indicating that as teachers take on full-time classroom responsibilities,
symptoms of depression and anxiety may increase.
According to Steinhardt, Smith Jaggars, Faulk, & Gloria (2011), this trend can be
mitigated when teachers have a combination of more experience and teaching awards. Their
study of 267 public school teachers looked at multiple variables such as stress, exhaustion,
number of years taught, and whether or not they had won a teaching award, and endeavored to
determine correlations between the different variables. Ultimately, the study found that teachers
who had more experience and had won awards reported fewer symptoms of burnout and
depression (Steinhardt, Smith Jaggars, Faulk, & Gloria, 2011). This suggests that as teachers
gain practice and become more skilled, they may become better at handling emotional
exhaustion, one of the main mediating factors in the study.
Fisher (2011) found similar data around burnout, in particular that teachers with less
experience displayed higher rates of burnout. Fisher’s (2011) study analyzed surveys collected
from 385 secondary teachers and found no significant difference in the stress level of less
experienced teachers (teachers with five or fewer years of experience) and more experienced
teachers (teachers with more than five years of experience). However, she did find a significant
difference in the two groups’ burnout scores, as less experienced teachers had higher burnout
scores (Fisher, 2011). By calculating significant relationships, Fisher (2011) found years of
experience and burnout to be significant predictors of stress, further highlighting the connection
between less teaching experience and greater rates of depression, anxiety, and burnout.
Certain populations of new teachers may be at greater risk for burnout, particularly those
recruited from more highly ranked undergraduate programs. In their 2015 study, Kelly and
Northrop looked at the experiences of teachers with three or fewer years of experience, who had
graduated from “highly selective” schools versus those who had not, as a way of researching
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 17

attrition for teachers entering the profession through programs like Teach for America (TFA).
As a result of their analysis of data from the 2007-2008 Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Survey
(BTLS), they found that teachers in the “highly selective” group reported higher levels of
burnout than their peers (Kelly & Northrop, 2015). Brewer’s (2014) qualitative study of TFA
teachers further underscores the potential implications of burnout among TFA corps members.
In his interviews with twenty TFA corps members, Brewer found themes of long working hours
and exhaustion. He posited that burnout may be leading to higher rates of attrition, which is
significant given the large number of TFA teachers enrolled at the Graduate School of
Education, as well as the school’s close partnership with TFA. While some symptoms of burnout
may be person-specific, research indicates that many may be influenced in large part by teachers’
work environments.
Working Environment
Teachers’ working environments can play a large role in their mental health, with specific
elements ranging from collaboration to perceptions of safety. Mahan et al. (2010) surveyed 110
Belgian teachers, who cited stress factors such as not feeling safe walking in their school
neighborhoods, unfriendly coworkers, and unmotivated/unprepared students; these factors were
also associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. Moore’s 2012 study using the
national 2007-2008 School and Staffing Survey (SASS) echoed this data, showing school
environment factors (such as larger student–teacher ratios and larger percentages of students with
limited English proficiency) to play a role in overall teacher dissatisfaction. Another aspect of
school environment, community income levels, may be a factor in teacher satisfaction and
retention, as Allensworth, Ponisciak, and Mazzeo (2009) found that schools with a higher
percentage of students from lower income brackets had greater teacher turnover rates than
schools with students from higher income brackets. These data are important to note, as the
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 18

Graduate School of Education works with teachers who almost exclusively teach in
neighborhoods with lower incomes.
In addition to finding ties between school environment and anxiety and depression,
Mahan et al. (2010) found that higher levels of coworker support were related to lower levels of
anxiety and depression and that collaboration was tied to decreased feelings of burnout and
depression (Mahan et. al., 2010). Similarly Allensworth, Ponisciak, and Mazzeo (2009) realized
that higher retention rates for Chicago public school teachers were linked to a strong sense of
collaboration among teachers as well as with the school’s principal. Moore (2012) found similar
trends, with an increase in teachers’ feelings of support from administrators and colleagues
coinciding with a 65.4% decrease in the chances of teachers being dissatisfied. Devos, Dupriez,
& Paquay (2012) looked at collaboration more specifically and found that it was most useful for
teachers who were already feeling successful, but not as useful for more struggling teachers. In
other words, if teachers are already struggling, increased opportunities for collaboration may not
help as the only intervention. Data from these studies provide insight as to why teachers might
feel stress, dissatisfaction, or other symptoms of reduced mental health, but they also provide
ideas for potential supports that might be useful to teachers who are struggling. It is important to
address challenges with teachers’ working environments, as they can have an impact on teachers’
mental health, which in turn, can impact their students and schools.
Impact of Teachers’ Mental Health on Students and Schools
Teacher’s mental health can affect their students and schools, both in terms of teachers’
overall effectiveness as well as student perceptions of teacher quality. In their study of pre-
service teachers, Ripski, LoCasale-Crouch, and Decker (2011) found teacher depression to be
predictive of the observed quality of classroom instruction. Teachers struggling with mental
health may not be as effective in their classroom teaching. Similarly, a recent study of preschool
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 19

teachers revealed that teachers with higher rates of depressive symptomatology also had lower
classroom organization (i.e. classroom management) and instructional support scores (i.e.
feedback, scaffolding, use of conversation and open-ended questioning) (Sandilos et al., 2015).
Students themselves may perceive a connection between teachers’ mental health and overall
teaching efficacy. Frenzel, Goetz, Stephens, & Jacob (2009) found a link between teachers’ self-
reported emotions (such as enjoyment, anger, and anxiety) and how students perceived teaching
quality. It is clear that teachers’ mental health impacts teachers’ abilities to manage a classroom
and provide appropriate feedback and questioning, in addition to students’ perceptions of teacher
effectiveness.
Teachers who exhibit signs of good mental health may beneficially impact stakeholder
groups. Pucella (2011) concluded that educators designated as NBCTs (National Board Certified
Teachers) displayed lower rates in all three categories of burnout (emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment.). Not only do these teachers maintain
a mental health that will serve their students, but they also engage in a rigorous process that
results in a nationally respected certification. Teachers can either positively or negatively impact
students and classrooms, depending on their mental health, but they do not always receive the
support they need. The Graduate School of Education’s model of faculty members as both
instructors and academic advisors may be helpful in this regard, as faculty advisors can play a
crucial role in mediating teachers’ burnout and depression. As a result, it is crucial to examine
their knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences through the Clark and Estes’ (2008)
Gap Analysis Framework.
Role of Stakeholder Group of Focus
For this problem of practice, the stakeholder group of focus is unique in that faculty
members teach, advise, and coach teachers—roles that might be separate at more traditional
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 20

institutions of higher education. Given their frequent interactions and oftentimes close
relationships with teachers, faculty members are well-positioned to help them, particularly if
provided with additional training. To this point, several studies have made recommendations for
expanding mental health training beyond counselors on college campuses, to other adults who
might have close relationships with students (e.g. faculty and staff members). Deroma, Leach,
and Leverett (2009) have made this suggestion in their paper about the relationship between
depression and undergraduate academic performance, and Drum, Brownson, Burton Denmark,
and Smith (2009) have made similar recommendations in confronting the problem of college
suicides.
Clark and Estes’ (2008) Knowledge, Motivation and Organizational Influences Framework
Clark and Estes’s (2008) analytic framework helps to illuminate performance gaps in
organizations by focusing on three key components: knowledge, motivation, and organization.
Understanding these components can be instrumental in parsing out where or why individual
stakeholder groups or the larger organization may be struggling to meet performance goals.
Mayer (2011) has divided up knowledge into five categories: factual, conceptual, procedural,
strategic, and belief-based knowledge, which help to assess what stakeholders know and
understand about a particular performance goal. Factual knowledge is based on facts about the
world that can be learned by memorization, while conceptual knowledge involves broader
categories, schema, and principles (Mayer, 2011). Procedural knowledge entails being able to
follow step-by-step procedures while strategic knowledge involves methods for managing other
strategies and pieces of knowledge, and belief-based knowledge has to do with a learner’s beliefs
about knowledge and learning (Mayer, 2011).
Motivation also plays a powerful role in determining people’s willingness to first
undertake and embrace goals and then push past obstacles (Mayer, 2011). Mayer (2011) points
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 21

out that motivation is often the key prerequisite for human beings’ desire to engage in learning.
As with knowledge needs, it is helpful to categorize motivation needs as a way of further
exploring how to achieve the smaller, specific steps that are needed to achieve the larger
stakeholder goal. Some motivation theories that will be pulled from in this study are expectancy
value theory, goal orientation theory, and attribution theory.
The final component of the Clark and Estes’s (2008) analytic framework, organization,
helps to determine the deeper, organization-based factors at work, which might be preventing
goals from being met. More specifically, organizational influences can be further divided into
cultural models and cultural settings (Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001). Cultural models refer to
shared organizational-wide understandings, perceptions, assumptions, or values, while cultural
settings refer more to the context in which work is being done–the who, what, when, where, and
why (Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001).
Each of these three components: knowledge, motivation, and organization, were used to
analyze faculty members’ ability to support graduate students mental health, in pursuit of the
goal that by November 2020, 90% of faculty members will have explicitly discussed mental
health concerns and/ or supports with teachers, both during in-person classes or one-on-one
check ins. The first section of this chapter will evaluate faculty members’ knowledge and skills
influences with regards to the stakeholder goal. The next section will discuss motivational
influences and finally, the third section will delve into organizational influences. Each of the
stakeholders’ knowledge, motivation and organizational influences on attainment of the
performance goal will be further elaborated in Chapter 3.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 22

Stakeholder Knowledge, Motivation and Organizational Influences
Knowledge and Skills
Knowledge influences. This literature review focuses on two knowledge-related needs
that are vital to achieving the stakeholder goal that by November 2020, 90% of faculty members
will have explicitly discussed mental health concerns and/or supports with teachers, either during
in-person classes or one-on-one check ins. It was crucial to examine the knowledge influences
that might impact this goal to ensure that an actionable plan can be developed and carried
through. As Clark and Estes (2008) point out, lack of knowledge can play an especially
detrimental role in creating or worsening existing organizational performance gaps. As
knowledge is itself a broad category, identifying and classifying it by type can be helpful in
addressing specific gaps. Because of this, the two primary knowledge influences that follow will
be identified by using Mayer’s (2011) categories: factual, conceptual, procedural, strategic, and
belief-based knowledge.
Factual knowledge is based in facts about the world that can be learned by memorization,
while conceptual knowledge involves broader categories, schema, and principles (Mayer, 2011).
Procedural knowledge entails being able to follow step-by-step procedures, strategic knowledge
involves methods for managing other strategies and pieces of knowledge, and belief-based
knowledge has to do with a learner’s beliefs about knowledge and learning (Mayer, 2011).
Because the majority of Graduate School of Education faculty members have little to no formal
training in mental health, two of the knowledge needs are factual and related to faculty members’
ability to identify symptoms of mental health and to recognize the pervasiveness of mental health
concerns among new teachers.
Identifying symptoms of mental health concerns. The first and most important
knowledge influence is factual, in that faculty members need to be able to identify and name
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 23

symptoms of mental health concerns such as depression, anxiety, and burnout. Identification is
important because it is the first step in helping teachers who are struggling with mental health.
While faculty members at Graduate School of Education all come from classroom teaching
backgrounds, few have acquired mental health training beyond isolated classes or workshops, as
this is not standard in teacher training programs.
Despite this lack of formal training, however, faculty members may, in fact, possess
some knowledge around mental health. Loades and Mastroyannopoulou (2010) found that, when
provided with hypothetical scenarios, British school teachers were able to identify children’s
behavioral and emotional symptoms, although the study’s authors recommended further training.
This indicates that teachers may have some knowledge related to mental health, although that
knowledge would need to be expanded to include adult-specific symptoms. In addition, to
baseline knowledge, faculty members may be hungry for more. In their study of British primary
and secondary teachers, Rothì, Leavey, and Best (2008) found that teachers wanted more mental
health care training in the form of identifying symptoms in students as well as strategies for
helping them. In the United States, this type of training is being provided more frequently at the
college and university level. In the Anxiety Disorders Association of America’s survey of 83
colleges and universities, one quarter of liberal arts colleges and a half of national universities
reported increasing faculty and staff training over the last three years (ADAA, 2007), which
represents some movement towards increased mental health education. If Graduate School of
Education faculty members express interest in more explicit training, this is congruent with
national trends among peer universities (ADAA, 2007) and would provide a good knowledge
base in their work supporting teachers around mental health concerns.
Understanding the higher prevalence of mental health concerns among new
teachers. The second knowledge influence is also factual, as it deals with faculty members’
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 24

familiarity with the pervasiveness of mental health concerns with newer, less experienced
teachers. According to the ADAA’s study of mental health in higher education, colleges and
universities are reporting an increase in mental health concerns among entering college
freshmen, as well as an increase in the percentage of students who are seeking treatment. More
specifically, 23% of students at liberal arts schools and 35% of students at national universities
sought treatment for anxiety disorder (ADAA, 2007). While not all teachers enrolled at the
Graduate School of Education fall in the age range analyzed in the ADAA report, many do, and
as a result, may bring their concerns about mental health and requests for support with them into
graduate school.
Faculty members at Graduate School of Education should also be aware of the higher
prevalence of mental health concerns among new teachers. A recent study of 267 public school
teachers in Texas found that teachers with more experience and more professional awards
reported fewer symptoms of burnout and that this burnout could potentially be a phase in
teachers eventually developing depression (Steinhardt, Smith Jaggars, Faulk, & Gloria, 2011).
Similarly, Pucella (2011) found that National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) demonstrated
lower rates of burnout than their non-NBCT counterparts, who in turn, experienced 13-30 times
higher rates of emotional exhaustion. If faculty members are aware of the general as well as
teacher-specific statistics around mental health, they will be better equipped to help teachers as
they navigate their first few years of teaching.
Table 2 below provides the organizational mission, organizational global goal, and
stakeholder specific goal, as well as specific knowledge influences, knowledge types, and
knowledge influence assessments.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 25

Table 2.
Knowledge influences on stakeholders
______________________________________________________________________________
Stakeholder Goal
By November 2020, 90% of faculty members will have explicitly discussed mental health
concerns and/or supports with teachers, either during in-person classes or one-on-one check ins.

Knowledge Influence Knowledge Type Knowledge Influence
Assessment
Faculty members need to be
able to name and identify
symptoms of mental health
concerns (e.g. anxiety,
depression, and burnout).
Factual Survey items: “How would
you define good mental
health, when it comes to
teachers?” “In terms of
mental health, what behaviors
or symptoms would cause you
concern, if you observed them
in a graduate student?”
Faculty members need to
possess a general knowledge
that there is a higher
prevalence of mental health
concerns among newer
teachers than the larger
population.
Factual Survey item: “Newer teachers
are more likely to experience
challenges with mental health
than their more experienced
peers.”

Motivation
In addition to the two knowledge-related needs referenced in Table 2, there are two
motivation needs that must be addressed in order for the stakeholder goal to be accomplished.
While knowledge is an important component of goal execution, motivation also plays a powerful
role in determining people’s willingness to first undertake and embrace goals and then push past
obstacles (Mayer, 2011). As with knowledge needs, it is helpful to specifically categorize
motivation needs as a way of further exploring how to achieve the smaller, specific steps needed
to achieve the larger stakeholder goal. The motivational needs that follow are pulled from the
motivation theories of expectancy value, goal orientation, and attribution, three different ways of
explaining people’s motivation and the reasons behind it.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 26

Expectancy-value theory. The first motivation theory, expectancy value theory, posits
that achievement-related choices are grounded in an individual’s expectations for success and the
value that an individual attaches to their options (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). Expectancy value
theory includes four potential components of achievement: utility value, intrinsic value,
attainment value, and cost (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). Utility value refers to the extent to which
a learner believes that an activity will help promote their short-term or long-term goals or earn
external rewards; intrinsic value refers to the enjoyment (or lack thereof) that a person expects
while completing a task; attainment value is the degree to which a task aligns with how a person
views themselves; finally, cost is how a learner views the time and energy they are spending on a
task.
Faculty members’ utility value. Within the expectancy value theory, utility value is
most pertinent to the stakeholder goal, as faculty members should see the importance of
addressing teachers’ mental health concerns. Multiple studies (Druss, Hwang, Petukhova, Wang,
& Kessler, 2009; Pratt & Brody, 2014) have shown that mental health concerns go untreated
more frequently than other chronic medical disorders. For example, an analysis of the results of
the National Comorbidity Survey Replication revealed that treatment was provided for 58.2% of
people with chronic medical disorders, as opposed to 21.4% of people with mental health
concerns, as a result of stigmas associated with mental health (Druss et. al, 2009). This shows
that people are less likely to receive treatment for mental health concerns than other medical
concerns, which is in keeping with overall rates of help-seeking behavior. Pratt and Brody
(2014) found similar patterns in the 2014 National Center for Health Statistics brief, as only
35.3% of people who self-identified as being depressed saw a mental health professional (Pratt &
Brody, 2014). These studies show that even if people are aware that they have mental health
needs, most will not seek the help they need.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 27

Attribution theory. The concept of attribution comes from Weiner’s (1972) work,
which positions motivation as the result of how people understand the reasons behind an event.
In Weiner’s model, there are three causal dimensions: locus, which refers to whether people see
an event as internal or external; stability, which entails whether an event is seen as stable or
unstable (i.e. occurring across time and events or in isolation); and controllability, which means
whether a person thinks they have control or no control over the cause of the event. Further,
according to Weiner, the type of attribution people have can determine the degree to which they
are willing to engage in a task and deal with frustration or setbacks. For example, people are
more likely to succeed and persist in academic settings if they attribute success to effort, rather
than intrinsic intelligence (Weiner, 1972).
Faculty members’ attribution. In the context of achieving the stakeholder goal, it is
crucial that Graduate School of Education faculty see their own agency and understand the vital
role that they can play in helping to support teachers with mental health concerns. In a study of
first year college students focused on depression disclosures on Facebook, 93% said they would
want a “familiar adult,” such as a professor or advisor, to talk to them if they saw evidence of
depression based on a Facebook post (Whitehill, Brockman, & Moreno, 2013). Given nationally
low rates of help-seeking behavior (Pratt & Brody, 2014), the fact that such a high percentage of
college students showed openness to adult help only further highlights the importance of
Graduate School of Education faculty members’ interactions with teachers. As Graduate School
of Education faculty fulfill the role of both professor and advisor, this research shows the power
of leveraging close personal relationships in helping to support teachers. This becomes even
more important in the context of first generation students, who, in a recent qualitative study,
reported higher levels of depression and stress. This same study, however, showed that a sense
of belonging negatively predicted levels of depression and stress (Stebleton, Soria, & Huesman,
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 28

2014). In other words, students who felt a sense of connection with their university or program
were less likely to experience mental health concerns. Once again, Graduate School of
Education faculty members are in a unique position as advisors and professors, to help foster a
sense of belonging and to serve as supports for teachers who are seeking professional help.
Table 3 below provides the organizational mission, organizational global goal, and
stakeholder specific goal, as well as specific motivation influences and motivation influence
assessments.
Table 3.
Motivation influences on stakeholders
______________________________________________________________________________
Stakeholder Goal
By November 2020, 90% of faculty members will have explicitly discussed mental health
concerns and/ or supports with teachers, either during in-person classes or one-on-one check ins.

Motivational Indicators
Assumed Motivation Influences Motivation Influence Assessment
Utility value: faculty members should
understand the importance of addressing
graduate students’ mental health concerns
for teachers’ academic and professional
success.
Survey item: “I think it is important for me
to address mental health concerns in
students when they materialize”
Attribution: faculty members should
understand the vital role they can personally
play in helping graduate students who may
have symptoms of mental health concerns.
Written survey item: “My support can have
a positive impact on graduate students’
mental well-being”

Organization
General theory. In addition to knowledge and motivation, this literature review will
examine organizational influences experienced by the principal stakeholder group of the study,
faculty members. Organizational influences are larger-scale processes, resources, or assets that
impact how well employees are able to perform individual tasks and at a larger level, do their
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 29

jobs (Clark & Estes, 2008). Organizational influences can be divided into two types of barriers–
cultural settings and cultural models (Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001). Cultural settings refer to
the more tangible aspects of an organization, such as the who, what, when, and where that events
are taking place. For the purposes of this study, one cultural setting and one cultural model
influence were examined.
Stakeholder specific factors. The first organizational influence has to do with cultural
setting: currently, there is no health center and no trained mental health counselors on staff at the
Graduate School of Education. Students do have access to three free counseling sessions by
outside providers, but this is not widely publicized and there is no one on staff charged with this
issue. This is likely at least partially due to the fact that the Graduate School of Education is
relatively new. In addition, while there is a “campus” in New York, that campus does not
present like more traditional undergraduate or graduate institutions: it is two floors of an office
building with no dining hall, gym, dormitories, or other common components of institutions of
higher learning. Resources such as the library and a general help “center” are located primarily
online, faculty members have desks in an open office format, and most office hours occur either
over the phone or over video. As a result of this decentralization of support in general and lack
of mental health services more specifically, the Graduate School of Education is failing to
emphasize teachers’ mental health needs.
This is in direct contrast to national trends reported by two and four-year college
counseling centers which, by and large, are expanding their efforts to meet students’ mental
health needs, as 94% of directors reported a greater number of students with severe
psychological problems (Gallagher, 2015). More specifically, 64% of centers are increasing
faculty training, 29% are increasing part-time counselors, and 26% are increasing counseling
staff (45% in large schools) (Gallagher, 2015). While other schools are ramping up their student
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 30

support, the Graduate School of Education continues to deprioritize this area, a cultural setting
factor that has a big influence on the problem of practice.
The second organizational influence is a cultural model influence. Faculty members at
the Graduate School of Education are deeply involved and invested in all aspects of teachers’
academic and professional success, due to their dual function as academic advisors and
classroom coaches. This cultural model influence is a potential boon to the problem of practice
in that it enables faculty members to form close relationships with the teachers with whom they
work.
These relationships could potentially help to overcome national trends of students not
seeking help. In a recent survey of 266 undergraduate students, only 1/3 reported "being
adequately informed" about university mental health services (Yorgason, Linville, & Zitzman,
2008). Further, a different study found that only 10% of college students used counseling
services, while more than 3/4 of students who reported higher levels of "distress" did not receive
counseling at all (Rosenthal & Wilson, 2008). These two studies demonstrate that students often
do not have the necessary knowledge about existing services, nor do they pursue counseling on
their own.
Students might, however, be open to help if prompted by someone else. This is
illustrated by the results of one study that revealed that 100% of students would be open to a
friend intervening if they saw evidence of depression based on a Facebook post, while 93% said
they would be open to the same intervention from a professor or advisor (Whitehill, Brockman,
& Moreno, 2013). Faculty members at the Graduate School of Education could leverage their
existing relationships with teachers to point them towards help and to get them counseling, if
needed.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 31

Table 4 below provides the stakeholder specific goal, as well as specific organizational
influences and organizational influence assessments.
Table 4.
Organizational influences on stakeholders
Stakeholder Goal
By November 2020, 90% of faculty members will have explicitly discussed mental health
concerns and/ or supports with teachers, either during in-person classes or one-on-one check
ins.
Organizational Indicators
Assumed Organizational Influences Organizational Influence Assessment
Cultural Setting: There is no health center
and no trained mental health counselors.
Survey item: “Graduate School, as an
institution, provides the necessary supports
for graduate students who are experiencing
challenges with their mental health.”
Cultural Model: Faculty members are deeply
involved and invested in all aspects of
teachers’ academic and professional success,
due to their dual function as academic
advisors and classroom coaches
Survey items: “It is part of my role as an
advisor to support my graduate students’
academic success.”
“It is part of my role as an advisor to support
my graduate students’ general well-being,
outside of their coursework.”

Conceptual Framework: The Interaction of Stakeholders’ Knowledge and Motivation and
the Organizational Context
The purpose of a conceptual framework is to provide the structure for a study, which is
then presented in graphic form (Maxwell, 2013). This graphic representation outlines
stakeholders’ interactions with the larger organization as well as their ideas and beliefs about the
concepts being studied in the study. In creating a conceptual framework, the researcher may
draw on a variety of sources: their own experiential knowledge, the existing body of theory and
research, the researcher’s own pilot research, and finally, thought experiments (Maxwell, 2013).
For this study, the researcher’s own experiential knowledge as well as the existing body of
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 32

literature most informed the creation of the conceptual framework. In particular, the researcher
drew on the existing body of theory and research in using Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analysis
model, which is based on three key areas: knowledge, motivation, and organization. These three
sources did not function in isolation, but rather interacted in different ways to inform the
researcher’s construction of the framework as well as the study itself. The researcher then used
her own experiential knowledge along with other existing research to determine specific
knowledge, motivation, and organization influences.
Knowledge plays a crucial role in determining individuals’ or organizations’ ability to
achieve their goals (Clark & Estes, 2008). In order to achieve their goals, faculty members
require two pieces of factual knowledge. The first is that faculty members need to be able to
name and identify symptoms of mental health concerns (e.g. depression, anxiety, and burnout).
This need is based on studies that show that while classroom teachers have some knowledge
when it comes to diagnosing students’ mental health symptoms (Loades & Mastroyannopoulou,
2010), some also expressed a desire for more mental health training by mental health
professionals (Rothì, Leavey, & Best, 2008). The second need is that faculty members should
possess a general knowledge that there is a higher prevalence of mental health concerns among
newer teachers than the larger population. This is rooted, first and foremost, in evidence that
teachers in general may experience higher rates of depression than the national average
(Whitaker, Becker, Herman, & Gooze, 2013). In addition, several studies point more specifically
to lower rates of depression and burnout in teachers with more years of teaching experience
(Steinhardt, Smith Jaggars, Faulk, & Gloria, 2011; Fisher, 2011).
In addition to knowledge, motivation plays a central role in helping people and
organizations to achieve goals (Clark & Estes, 2008). Two motivation factors are at the heart of
this conceptual framework. The first is tied to utility value, or the perceived value of a task in
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 33

enabling someone to meet their goals (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). This motivation influence is
that faculty members need to understand the importance of addressing teachers’ mental health
concerns for teacher’s academic and professional success. In a study based on data from the
National Comorbidity Survey, Druss et al. (2009) found that people were more likely to receive
treatment for physical medical disorders than mental health concerns, even though participants
with mental health concerns experienced higher rates of social impairment than those with
physical medical disorders. Similarly, Pratt and Brody (2014) found that only 35.3% of people
who self-identified as being depressed saw a mental health professional. If faculty members
believe that the work they are doing is crucial in supporting teachers’ mental health, they will be
more motivated to pursue and perhaps surpass their goal.
The second motivation factor is an example of attribution theory (Weiner, 1972), which
has to do with individuals' beliefs about why certain events occur and who is responsible for
them. For this motivation factor, faculty members need to understand the vital role they can
personally play in helping teachers who may have symptoms of mental health concerns, if they
are to achieve the stakeholder goal. Because they serve as teachers’ instructors, advisors, and
classroom coaches, faculty members are particularly well-suited to this role. Furthermore, recent
studies conducted on college campuses support this focus, with recommendations for expanding
the scope of the group of adults responsible for thinking about student depression (Deroma,
Leach, & Leverett, 2009) and suicide prevention (Drum, Brownson, Burton Denmark, & Smith,
2009) beyond trained medical professionals.
Finally, the Graduate School of Education is impacted by organizational factors—more
specifically, one cultural setting factor and one cultural model factor. In Gallimore and
Goldenberg’s (2001) work, a cultural setting refers to the context of an organization and where
specific actions take place, while a cultural model refers to an organization’s shared beliefs,
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 34

values, and assumptions. For this study, the cultural setting factor is that the Graduate School of
Education has no centralized health center and no trained mental health counselors. This stands
in direct contrast with most post-secondary schools. Of the 275 schools in the 2014 National
Survey of College Counseling Centers survey, 89% of directors reported an increase in anxiety
disorders while 58% reported increases in clinical depression (Gallagher, 2015). The Graduate
School of Education’s lack of services in a time when depression and anxiety appear to be on the
rise among post-secondary students, is especially noteworthy.
The cultural model factor is that faculty members are deeply involved and invested in all
aspects of teachers’ academic and professional success due to their dual function as academic
advisors and classroom coaches. Faculty members’ unique position is significant and a potential
strength because it may make teachers feel more comfortable talking to them in cases of
struggles with mental health. Whitehill, Brockman, & Moreno’s (2013) work supports this view,
finding that 93% of students would want a “familiar adult” to talk to them if they saw evidence
of depression based on a Facebook post. Faculty members may be able to fill that role for
teachers and help them to get the support they need. Figure 1: Conceptual Framework for
Supporting Teachers’ Mental Health provides a visual representation of the interactions between
the Graduate School of Education, faculty members, and the stakeholder goal.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 35

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework for Supporting Teachers’ Mental Health

In Figure 1, the Graduate School of Education influences all elements of the problem of
practice, so it is represented by the largest, encompassing circle. As a result of working at the
Graduate School of Education, faculty members (placed in the smaller circle) are necessarily
influenced by larger organizational factors, here presented as cultural setting and cultural model.
These two organizational factors impact faculty members’ knowledge (in this case factual) and
motivation (specified as utility value and attribution), which are both needed to achieve the
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 36

stakeholder-specific goal of having explicitly discussed mental health concerns with teachers
during classes and check-ins. The downwards-facing arrow indicates that, while faculty
members are the stakeholders primarily responsible for achieving the goal, the organizational
factors also play a role in faculty members’ knowledge and motivation.
Conclusion
The purpose of this paper is to conduct an evaluation study to assess existing supports of
the mental health of teachers enrolled in the Graduate School of Education. In this chapter,
general literature was presented around influences on the problem of practice. This included
common forms of teachers’ struggles with mental health, such as anxiety and depression, as well
as contributing factors and the potential impact on students and schools. Next, the role of faculty
members as the stakeholder group of focus was explained, as well as the Clark and Estes (2008)
gap analysis as the basis for the conceptual framework of this study. This framework delved into
knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences and presented a visual for how they
interact to influence faculty members’ ability to meet the stakeholder goal. Chapter Three will
continue this work by presenting the study’s methodological approach.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 37

CHAPTER THREE: METHODS
The purpose of this study is to examine the knowledge, motivation, and organizational
influences on faculty members’ ability to support teachers’ mental health. In this chapter, the
research design for the study is presented, as well as methods for data collection and analysis.
These align with the study’s research questions, which focus on faculty members’ knowledge
and motivation regarding the problem of practice and the related current organizational practices.
In the rest of this chapter, participating stakeholders are discussed and the study’s criteria for
selection is defined. In addition, the survey recruitment strategy and rationale is outlined, along
with explanations of data collection and analysis. Finally, validity and reliability considerations
as well as ethical implications are discussed.
Participating Stakeholders
The stakeholder group of focus for this study and primary participants are faculty
members at the Graduate School of Education. Since the Graduate School of Education is an
alternative certification program designed to help teachers attain their teaching certification
while also fulfilling the requirements of a two year MAT program, teachers are completing many
requirements simultaneously. On top of full time classroom teaching and lesson planning, they
are also taking graduate school classes at night and completing their teaching certification
requirements. As a result, faculty members are in a unique position in that they fulfil multiple
roles in order to fully support teacher’ many needs. Every school year, each faculty member is
responsible for providing certification support, academic support, classroom coaching, teaching,
and grading for a group of 5-60 teachers who are enrolled as graduate students. As a result,
faculty members form close relationships with the teachers with whom they work and often serve
as their primary point of contact.
While faculty members hold different titles and may have varying instructional
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 38

responsibilities, all members of the New York teaching faculty, regardless of title, will be
considered for participation in this study, as all have similar advisement, coaching, and grading
duties. At the time of this study, there were fifty faculty members teaching in the Graduate
School’s New York campus and two criteria for inclusion in the study. The first criterion was at
least six months of employment at the graduate school, and the second was having a caseload of
at least five teachers. The reason for the first is that after six months, a faculty member would
have completed the necessary training and development to ensure their competency in academic
advisement responsibilities and a more general knowledge of the Graduate School itself. They
will also be expected to know how to support teachers in submitting quality assignments, ensure
that they have met their state certification requirements, and provide classroom coaching. In
terms of the second criterion, faculty members with fewer than five teachers may not have been
spending sufficient time advising them to have been able to fully participate in the study and
answer questions about trends in graduate students’ mental health.
Survey Sampling Criteria and Rationale
Criterion 1. The first criterion was that faculty members must have been employed at
the Graduate School of Education for at least six months. This is consistent with the first and
second research questions in particular, because in order to contribute meaningfully to this study,
faculty members needed to know enough about the organization to be able to articulate their own
knowledge and motivation and assess the organization’s effectiveness in supporting teachers. As
indicated in the conceptual framework, the larger organization plays an important role in
influencing faculty members’ ability to achieve their goal, and faculty members needed to have
worked for the Graduate School of Education for at least a few months so that they truly became
part of the organizational culture before participating in the study.
Criterion 2. The second criterion was that faculty members must have had a caseload of
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 39

at least five teachers. This criterion also connected with the first and second research questions
because, in order to fully reflect on their knowledge and motivation, as well as the organization’s
support of teachers, faculty members needed to be spending a significant amount of time
advising teachers. If their primary responsibilities were elsewhere (such as curriculum
development or building partnerships), they may not have been fully attuned to trends in
teachers’ needs. This criterion also connected with the third research question, as faculty
members may not have been fully immersed in organizational culture (as it pertains to teaching
faculty) if they were on different teams. With regards to the conceptual framework, they may
have experienced the organization differently from full-time teaching faculty, which would have
introduced an element to the study that might have potentially skewed the data being collected.
Survey Sampling (Recruitment) Strategy and Rationale
This study used the census method, which uses data based on the entire population, rather
than a sample. According to Johnson & Christensen (2015), this method is appropriate when
working with a smaller population. In addition, collecting data from all faculty members was
relatively straightforward, as all faculty members worked in the location. This evaluation study
aims to show the gaps in existing supports at the Graduate School of Education, so it was
beneficial to gather data from as many of the affected stakeholders as possible. Close to half of
faculty members who met the two criteria participated in the study, thus resulting in a high
response rate, which enabled the researcher to generalize and make recommendations based on
the third research question (Fink, 2013). The researcher first presented faculty members with an
outline of the study so they had the necessary context. Faculty members completed the survey at
the beginning of the data collection process and the survey administrator followed up as
necessary.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 40

Data Collection and Instrumentation
For this study, a survey was chosen as the method of data collection because the subject
and the research questions had not yet been examined in the context of the Graduate School of
Education. Because there was no existing data, the researcher gathered as much baseline data as
possible, from as many participants as possible. The researcher determined that quantitative
research best met this need and that surveys would be especially effective as data could be based
on standardized instruments (USC, 2018a).
More specifically, a survey enabled the researcher to collect usable data based on the
conceptual KMO framework laid out by Clark and Estes (2008). This framework as well as
research questions were used to guide the assessment of faculty members’ knowledge and
motivation on this topic, as well as their perceptions of contributing organizational factors.
Because the research questions in particular focused on faculty members’ attitudes and beliefs,
the researcher determined that a survey was a particularly appropriate mode for data collection
(Irwin & Stafford, 2016). A survey also represented the most efficient way of collecting data, as
it eliminated the need for manual data entry (Irwin & Stafford, 2016), while still allowing for
coverage of all aspects of the research questions.
Surveys
Surveys were conducted online using Survey Gizmo and were administered by a member
of the Research Department, so that the primary researcher’s direct reports did not feel obligated
to complete the survey. An online survey ensured that faculty members could complete it in
their preferred location and at their preferred time, thus increasing the likelihood for completion
as well as decreasing any feelings of obligation that might arise if surveys were to be
administered all at once, in person. As faculty members complete multiple institutional surveys
a year, they were comfortable with completing online surveys in general so this method should
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 41

not have represented a barrier. In addition, online survey completion facilitated data collection
and analysis. The survey was released mid-April and remained open until the end of May,
before the New York campus began its summer programming. This ensured that faculty
members had ample time to complete the survey. The survey administrator sent out reminders
three times: on May 1, May 15, and May 29, right before the survey closed. The survey was
released in English and was written on a 6
th
- 8
th
grade reading level, which was an important
consideration for accessibility (Fink, 2013). While all faculty members hold at least a bachelor’s
degree, this helped to guarantee that survey completers had a complete understanding of the
questions and were ready to respond to them completely. Survey results were not associated
with identifying information and the survey administrator further helped to ensure confidentiality
by cleaning the data before sending it to the primary researcher. Survey results were stored in a
password-protected folder online, thus further ensuring data security.
For this study, 45 participants were sent a 21-question survey. As per the study
requirements, these faculty members had all had been employed at the Graduate School of
Education teaching for at least six months, and all had a caseload of at least five teachers. Out of
45 faculty members who were sent the survey, 32 opened it and 22 submitted responses. Of the
22, one faculty member declined informed consent, so ultimately 21 responses were usable,
resulting in a 46% response rate.
Additional Sources of Data
In addition to collecting data from a new survey, excerpts from two additional, existing
surveys and their data was used. The first was a twice-yearly survey administered to teachers at
the Graduate School, with a question that asked teachers to rate their stress levels from the past
week. The second was a survey from a doctoral study examining recent Graduate School
alumni, with a question about whether teachers ever considered staying home from school.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 42

These additional pieces of data helped to provide additional context for the problem of practice
within Graduate School of Education specifically and helped make the connection between
teachers’ needs and perceptions and the degree to which faculty members felt prepared to
support them.
Data Analysis
The survey administrator ensured that response data was not connected to identifying
information before providing access to the primary researcher. In the data cleaning phase, the
researcher first looked through the data for usable responses. While 45 faculty members were
sent the survey, 32 faculty members opened it, 10 failed to provide responses to any questions,
and an additional faculty member did not sign the informed consent, resulting in 21 usable
responses, or a 46.7% response rate. Every question had a response rate of at least 85%, so the
researcher did not have to calculate nonresponse bias.
In the data analysis phase, the researcher separated quantitative questions from qualitative
questions. As the majority of quantitative questions were based on Likert-scale ratings, the
researcher did not calculate measures of central tendency for most of them, but instead calculated
the percentage of stakeholders who strongly agreed, or agreed, somewhat agreed, somewhat
disagreed, disagreed, and strongly disagreed. The researcher then added the number of responses
in the strongly agree and agree categories as well as the number of responses in the strongly
disagree and disagree categories, in order to compare strong stakeholder opinions on both sides
of the spectrum. For questions that required stakeholders to write in specific numbers, the
researcher calculated measures of central tendency.
After analyzing quantitative data, the researcher analyzed trends in faculty members’
responses to qualitative questions. The researcher read through responses to see whether
particular words or concepts recurred and how those words or phrases connected to the study’s
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 43

research questions. In the knowledge, motivation, and organization results section of the study,
quantitative data aligned with each element was analyzed and then qualitative data was used to
provide further insight into the analysis as well as supporting quotes from the study
participants. The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative data to determine larger
themes that aligned with the study’s research questions and then used both types of data to
discuss these themes. When possible, the researcher used direct quotes from study participants
to further support themes and to bring participants’ voices to the forefront of the analysis.
Validity and Reliability
Because the primary researcher created the survey from scratch, it was important that she
ensured survey validity. In order to do so, the researcher first ensured that each question only
asked about one aspect of the knowledge, motivation, or organization elements being studied. In
addition, content experts in psychology and survey creation were asked to look over the
individual items and provide feedback, to increase internal validity. To ensure external validity,
data was collected from as many faculty members as possible, so that there was a large group to
draw from, thus increasing the likelihood that results and analysis might apply to other groups (in
this case, other campuses) (USC, 2018b).
The survey was administered online in order to ensure internal reliability and that,
according to Salkind (2016), both the tool and the administration would be standardized. This
ensured that data was collected in the same manner across different respondents. To ensure
external reliability, a presentation was made to all faculty members before the survey opened,
detailing the purpose of the study and underscoring the confidentiality of data collection, storage,
and analysis. Additional time was set aside for faculty members to come speak with the primary
researcher if they had additional questions or concerns that they did not feel comfortable
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 44

bringing up in public. This helped ensure that the researcher was maintaining transparency about
study methods as well as sampling (USC, 2018b).
In order to have confidence in the sample and results, the study aimed to obtain as high of
a response rate as possible. Higher response rates were aided by the presentation, as the hope
was that faculty members would be more likely to complete the survey if they were confident in
its purpose and overall reliability. In addition to the presentation, high levels of completion were
ensured by monitoring response rates and sending reminders to faculty members to complete the
survey during the survey completion window. Both the monitoring and the reminders were kept
anonymous, as faculty members were assigned unique survey links as well as unique codes. The
codes were used to monitor survey completion and to generate reminder emails.
The researcher sought to avoid any bias that might have emerged if certain faculty
members did not respond by keeping responses anonymous. This was particularly important for
the two faculty members that the researcher managed so they would not feel obligated to take the
survey or to complete it in a certain way because they were concerned about possible
repercussions. This was also important for new faculty members that the researcher helped train,
to mitigate any fears that results might be shared with their managers. Overall, these practices
helped ensure both the validity and reliability of the data collected for this study. Following is a
table that aligns survey questions with the pertinent research question as well as relevant
literature.
Ethics
The participants in this study were faculty members in the New York campus and none of
the participants presented concerns with regards to involving at-risk populations. However, steps
were taken to ensure no ethical dilemmas presented themselves, as the validity of the study relied
in part on the ethics employed during the study itself (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). In order to
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 45

avoid this, a short presentation was made to potential participants based on Patton's Ethics Issues
Checklist (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The presentation included the purpose of the study as well
as how data would be collected and used. During this presentation, it was made clear that
participation was voluntary and anonymous and that participants could withdraw at any time
(Glesne, 2011). The survey administrator removed all participant names and identifying
information from the data set prior to analysis and all datasets and analysis were stored on a
password-protected computer. This information enabled participants to enter into the study with
informed consent, as they were aware of all aspects of the study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). As
participants took surveys, there was no need to gain permission to record.
As a staff developer at the Graduate School of Education, the researcher had a direct
interest in the results of the project, since she personally believed that faculty members should
get more training in supporting teachers’ mental health. However, since this personal belief
should not interfere with decisions around data, the researcher made it clear her role as staff
developer did not impact the study itself or data collection. It is possible that study results could
eventually impact the way staff development curriculum is designed, but that would be
contingent on larger organizational shifts and decisions from senior leadership about shifting the
role of faculty members.
In addition to a staff developer, the primary researcher is also the direct manager of two
faculty members. Given this role, the researcher emphasized that participation in the study was
completely voluntary and would have no impact either way on their performance reviews. This
was crucial because, as Glesne (2011) points out, the closer that the researcher and participants
are, the greater the possibility for feelings of obligation or coercion. For the purposes of this
study, the researcher’s role as manager was immaterial. Rather, her focus was on collecting and
analyzing data for the study itself.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 46

Collecting data, analyzing data, and reporting results required an awareness of researcher
biases and assumptions. As Merriam and Tisdell (2016) discussed, it is impossible for a
researcher to completely remove their own bias, thus it is important to acknowledge them. In
entering this study, two significant assumptions were that new teachers often experience mental
health concerns and that faculty members felt that they lacked the necessary training to support
teachers in these situations. These assumptions came from the researcher’s experience with
depression as a new teacher and as a professor who offered support to new teachers with varying
degrees of success. While the researcher’s assumptions have certainly informed the study topic
as well as the type of data collected, they did not impact how participants were recruited for the
study, nor the study’s purpose.
Limitations and Delimitations
Several limitations as well as delimitations existed for this study. The two primary
limitations included the truthfulness of respondents, as well as the accuracy of their responses.
Since the survey was, by its very nature, self-reporting, there was no guarantee that responses
were fully representative of faculty members’ motivation in particular. In addition, faculty
members might have felt pressure as a result of the survey being administered by another faculty
member, which might have led to them not providing completely honest responses to questions
about organizational efficacy. In terms of accuracy, faculty members might have felt
embarrassed about their lack of knowledge around mental well-being, which could have
potentially impacted their responses to questions aligned with the knowledge piece of the
framework.
Delimitations for this study included the form of the survey itself as well as the questions
posed and the format used. While quantitative data collection was selected in order to elicit
responses from as many of the key stakeholders as possible, the depth that would have been
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 47

achieved by more targeted interviews was lost. The sample presented an additional delimitation,
as not all faculty members in every campus of the Graduate School of Education was surveyed.
A decision was made to focus only on faculty members in the New York campus, as they had the
most commonalities in terms of their experiences with academic advisement and teaching, but as
a result, some breadth was sacrificed.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 48

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND FINDINGS
The purpose of this study was to examine the knowledge, motivation, and organizational
influences that impact faculty members’ ability to support teachers’ mental well-being. The
particular setting for this study was a graduate school of education that provides alternative route
certification as well as a two year MAT degree for teachers. In order to gather data on the
factors influencing faculty members’ knowledge and motivation as well as organizational
dynamics, a survey was disseminated to all members of the stakeholder group of focus (faculty
members at the New York campus), which included both qualitative and quantitative questions.
The survey data was not connected to faculty members’ names or other identifying information,
and was disseminated by a member of the research team to further maintain confidentiality.
Prior to dissemination, the primary researcher delivered a short presentation to faculty members
explaining the purpose of the study as well as maintenance of confidentiality. The questions
that guided the evaluation study were as follows:
1. To what extent is the Graduate School of Education meeting its goal of developing a
resource for faculty members to help them in supporting teachers’ mental health needs?
2. What are faculty members’ knowledge and motivation related to discussing mental health
concerns and/ or supports with teachers?
3. What is the interaction between organizational culture and context and faculty members’
knowledge and motivation?
4. What are the recommendations for organizational practice in the areas of knowledge,
motivation, and organizational resources?
Participating Stakeholders
For this study, 45 participants were sent a 21-question survey. As per the study
requirements, these faculty members had all had been employed at the Graduate School of
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 49

Education teaching for at least six months, and all had a caseload of at least five teachers. While
45 faculty members were sent the survey, 32 faculty members actually opened it and 22
submitted responses. Of the 22, one faculty member declined informed consent, so ultimately 21
responses were usable, resulting in a 46% response rate. In addition to the current study,
additional data was incorporated from the bi-annual institutional survey administered to teachers
enrolled at the Graduate School of Education. The question that was used asked teachers to rate
their stress levels from the past week and was intended as a further data point in determining
faculty members’ knowledge of new teachers’ needs. One further data point was derived from a
question in a recent doctoral study conducted of teachers enrolled at the Graduate School of
Education that assessed teacher’s motivation to go into work.
Results
Knowledge Results
Four survey items assessed faculty members’ knowledge. Of those items, two were
quantitative in nature and two were qualitative in nature. The first quantitative item, “Newer
teachers are more likely to experience challenges with mental health than their more experienced
peers,” assessed participants’ knowledge of the higher prevalence of mental health concerns
among new teachers, while the second, “I have the necessary knowledge to support teachers with
mental health concerns,” assessed participants’ own self-efficacy with regards to their
knowledge. The qualitative questions, “How would you define good mental health, when it
comes to teachers?” and “In terms of mental health, what behaviors or symptoms would cause
you concern, if you observed them in a graduate student?” were intended to provide additional
supporting data for the quantitative questions. Results from the quantitative questions can be
found in Table 5 below. Both questions were assessed using a six-point Likert scale, ranging
from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. Measures of central tendency were not used to
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 50

analyze responses to these questions, as the resulting data would not have been meaningful.
However, the percentage of respondents who selected each category was calculated and
displayed, as a meaningful expression of trends.
Two additional sources of supporting quantitative data were collected as part of two
separate surveys, in order to support knowledge findings. The first was a survey sent to all
teachers enrolled at the Graduate School of Education in the spring of 2019, administered by the
Research Department at the Graduate School of Education (Relay GSE, 2019). The survey
question being used for this study asked teachers to rate their level of stress in the past week.
This question in particular was determined to be pertinent as stress has been identified as a
symptom of both anxiety and burnout (Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1997; Parekh, 2017), two
aspects of mental health discussed in this study. This data can be seen in Table 6. As with the
Likert-scale questions, measures of central tendency were not calculated. However, the
percentage of respondents who selected each category was calculated and displayed as a
meaningful representation of trends in responses.
The second source of supporting quantitative data was also a survey, administered by a
USC doctoral student as part of their dissertation in the spring of 2018 to recent graduates of the
MAT program. This survey focused on the experiences of alumni, their self-efficacy, and their
long-term career plans (Marder-Eppstein, 2019). Altogether, 555 teachers were sent the survey
and 163 completed it, resulting in a 29% response rate. The specific statement used for the
current study was “I think about staying home from school because I’m just too tired to go,” and
options for responses were strongly agree, agree, somewhat agree, neither agree nor disagree,
disagree, and strongly disagree. This question was deemed pertinent to the current study as
feelings of exhaustion have been linked to both the emotional exhaustion component of burnout
(Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter, 1997) as well as depression (Pratt & Brody, 2014). This data can
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 51

be seen in Figure 2. As this was a Likert-style item, measures of central tendency were not
calculated, but the percentage of respondents who selected each category was calculated and
displayed as a meaningful representation of trends in responses. As Marder-Eppstein’s (2019)
study focused on teacher’s plans to stay at their school, move to another school, or leave the
profession, respondents are further categorized into “stayers,” “movers,” and “leavers.”
Table 5
Faculty Members’ Knowledge of Mental Health Concerns
Item
%
Strongly
Disagree
%
Disagree
%
Somewhat
Disagree
%
Somewhat
Agree
%
Agree
%
Strongly
Agree
New teachers are more
likely to experience
mental health challenges.
9.52 0.00 9.52 33.33 23.81 23.81
I have the necessary
knowledge to support
teachers with mental
health concerns.
4.76 28.57 28.57 28.57 9.52 0.00

Table 6
Teachers’ Self-Reported Stress Levels
Item
% Not at
all
stressed
% Stressed
to a small
extent
% Stressed
to some
extent
% Stressed to a
considerable
extent
% Stressed
to a great
extent
How would you rate
your stress level
from the past week?
2 10 30 31 27

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 52

Figure 2.
Survey responses to the statement “I think about staying home from school because I’m too tired to
go.”

As per the conceptual framework for this study, the researcher posited that faculty
members would show two gaps in faculty factual knowledge: first, that they would not be aware
of the higher prevalence of mental health concerns among new teachers and second, that they
would not be able to name common symptoms of mental health concerns. The data from the
faculty survey confirmed a gap for the first piece of factual knowledge, although the gap was not
as large as expected. It showed that 47.62% of faculty members either agreed or strongly agreed
that new teachers are more likely to experience mental health challenges than their more
experienced peers, while 80.95% either somewhat agreed, agreed, or strongly agreed.
Additionally, 9.52% strongly disagreed and 0% disagreed. This demonstrated that the original
predicted gap in knowledge was not as large as immediately assumed, as the majority of faculty
members fell into one of the “agree” categories. However, a gap was still revealed, as these data
did not match the reality of teachers’ experiences at the Graduate School of Education, as shown
by the Spring 2019 teacher survey.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 53

According to the data collected in the Spring 2019 survey of teachers enrolled in the
Graduate School of Education, 88% of teachers felt some, considerable, or great amounts of
stress during the past week. This showed that the majority of teachers self-identified as feeling
stress, with 58% feeling a considerable or great amount of stress. These data showed that
teachers’ experiences were different from some faculty members’ perceptions of their mental
health needs, thus demonstrating some gap in their knowledge around new teachers’ mental
health needs.
Marder-Eppstein’s (2019) data supported high levels of teacher stress as determined by
self-reported levels of exhaustion, especially with regards to “movers” and “leavers.” Overall,
15% of “movers” and “leavers” selected somewhat agree, agree, or strongly agree while 9% of
“movers” and “leavers” selected somewhat disagree, disagree, or strongly disagree. This showed
a connection between exhaustion and teachers leaving their school settings, further underscoring
Mahan et al.’s (2010) conclusions about the connection between school environment and teacher
depression and burnout. Overall, these data further confirmed that faculty members at the
Graduate School of Education may not be fully attuned to teachers’ stress factors or their mental
health needs.
Data for the second item around faculty self-efficacy showed mixed results, confirming a
gap for some faculty members in their knowledge of common mental health symptoms. Only
9.52% of faculty members (two total) agreed that they possessed the necessary knowledge to
support teachers with mental health needs, while 28.57% somewhat agreed. The majority of
faculty members, 61.9%, somewhat disagreed, disagreed, or strongly disagreed. This showed
that while faculty members might be aware of the prevalence of mental health concerns among
new teachers, they did not feel equipped with the knowledge needed to support those teachers.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 54

Despite faculty members’ perceptions of their own self-efficacy, the qualitative data
demonstrated that some did, in fact, possess some knowledge related to mental health. In fact,
when asked to list symptoms of poor mental health, many faculty members named symptoms
directly connected to clinical definitions, while others made more implicit connections. For
example, of the twenty one faculty members surveyed, seven explicitly mentioned crying, which
Pratt & Brody (2014) discussed is a symptom of depression. Similarly, several others mentioned
sadness or a “downcast attitude.” Some faculty members referenced symptoms concordant with
depersonalization, which researchers (Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter, 1997) have identified as an
aspect of burnout. They indicated that they would be concerned if they saw teachers
withdrawing from peers during class and having a negative mindset about their students and
schools. Other faculty members cited concerns tied to anxiety, such as nervousness or fear tied
to assignments or teaching in general. One faculty member provided examples of specific
phrases that would cause concern, such as "I can't do this" or "I'm not sure that I can do this."
Overall, these data demonstrated that faculty members in fact possessed knowledge concerning
mental health, as they were able to cite symptoms tied to clinical definitions of depression,
burnout, and anxiety.
Data from the qualitative question that asked faculty members to define good mental
health was less closely connected to clinical definitions. Several faculty members cited work-life
balance as an indicator, while others wrote about emotional constancy and regulation. Others
named positivity or optimism as well as being able to seek help when necessary. While these
data were less specific, they did show a variety of signs that faculty members might look for.
Coupled with the qualitative data around mental health concerns, they demonstrated a knowledge
of mental health symptoms that was not entirely aligned with faculty members’ self-perceptions.
These qualitative and quantitative data are in keeping with Loades and Mastroyannopoulou’s
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 55

(2010) study that found evidence of classroom teachers’ ability to recognize mental health
symptoms in their students.
Motivation Results
Six quantitative survey items assessed faculty members’ motivation with regards to
mental health concerns, specifically around utility value and attribution, which were both
outlined in the conceptual framework in Chapter Two. Of these items, two were assessed using
the same six-point Likert scale as the knowledge items. These items were “I think it is important
for me to address mental health concerns in students when they materialize” and “My support
can have a positive impact on graduate students’ mental well-being.” One additional item stated
“When discussing issues related to mental health I try to destigmatize it,” with choices of
“always,” “sometimes,” and “never.” Table 7 shows data from the Likert items and Table 8
shows data from the item with the three frequency-related choices. As with the knowledge-
related Likert-scale questions, measures of central tendency were not calculated but the
percentage of respondents who selected each option were.
Of the remaining three questions, two asked faculty members to report how many hours
they spent working on academic advisement in the past week and how many teachers they had
spoken with in the last year about mental health needs. The results from these questions are
displayed in Table 9. As these questions asked faculty members to provide actual numbers
(respectively the number of hours spent on academic advisement and the number of advisees),
measures of central tendency were calculated, in order to determine trends in responses. The
final question, which asked faculty members how many of their academic advisement
interactions with teachers involved discussion of a non-academic topic, was intended to assess
how often faculty members veer from academic conversations. This question was assessed using
a scale with the choices none, almost none, some, most, and all. Results from this question are
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 56

displayed in Table 10 and like the six-point Likert scale, have been analyzed by calculating the
percentage of respondents who selected each option.
Table 7
Faculty Members’ Motivation with Regards to Mental Health Concerns - 6 Point Likert Scale
Item
%
Strongly
Disagree
%
Disagree
%
Somewhat
Disagree
%
Somewhat
Agree
%
Agree
%
Strongly
Agree
I think it is important for
me to address mental
health concerns in
students.
0 0 0 4.76 38.10 57.14
My support can have a
positive impact on
graduate students’ mental
well-being
0 0 4.76 4.76 23.81 66.67

Table 8
Faculty Members’ Motivation with Regards to Mental Health Concerns - 3 Point Scale
Item % Always % Sometimes % Never
When discussing issues related to mental health, I
try to destigmatize it.
66.67 33.33 0.00

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 57

Table 9
Faculty Members’ Motivation with Regards to Mental Health Concerns - Amount of Time
Spent
Item Maximum Minimum Range Mean Median
Number of hours in the
past week spent on
academic advisement
30 1.5 28.5 12.88 10
Number of advisees
spoken with about mental
health needs in the past
year
30 0 30 5.45 4

Table 10
Faculty Members’ Motivation with Regards to Mental Health Concerns - Portion of Time
Spent
Item % None % Almost none % Some % Most % All
Of academic advising
conversations, how many
involved discussion of a
non-academic topic?
0 23.81 9.52 19.05 14.29

Faculty members expressed motivation for supporting teachers’ mental health needs,
demonstrating little to no gap in utility value. More specifically, 95.24% of faculty members
agreed or strongly agreed that it was important for them to address teachers’ mental health
concerns, while the remaining 4.76 chose somewhat agree. In the survey item more specifically
tied to attribution, “My support can have a positive impact on graduate students’ mental well-
being,” results were not quite as high, although 90.48 of faculty members did agree or strongly
agree with the statement. For this statement, 4.76% of respondents selected somewhat agree and
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 58

4.76 selected somewhat disagree, revealing a slightly less strong belief in the power of their
support.
The remaining survey items were intended to assess the extent to which faculty members
actually put their beliefs into practice. For the item “When discussing issues related to mental
health, I try to destigmatize it,” 100% of faculty members selected always or sometimes, with
66.67% selecting always and the remaining 33.33 selecting sometimes. This showed that while
faculty members usually attempted to put their beliefs in the importance of mental health into
practice, only some were able to do this all the time.
This gap between different faculty members’ advisement practice was further borne out
by the remaining motivation questions. When asked the number of hours spent in the past week
on academic advisement, the median was 10, with a range of 28.5. However, when asked how
many of these conversations involved discussion of a non-academic topic, only 33.34% of
faculty members responded with “all” or “most” and 33.33% responded with almost none or
some. This demonstrated a split in faculty advisement practices that was further supported by
looking at faculty members who provided the actual number of hours spent on advisement. Of
the six faculty members who responded to the question numerically, three entered numbers
between one and two and three entered numbers ranging from 10 to 14, showing the same divide
in faculty practices.
This gap appeared again when faculty members reported how many teachers they had
spoken with about mental health. Some faculty members stated that they had spoken with no
teachers about mental health and others stated that they had spoken with 30 teachers. While the
range of responses to this question was large, most teachers had spoken with three to five
teachers. Overall, the motivation-related questions showed that while most faculty members
displayed strong motivation with regards to supporting teachers’ mental health in the areas of
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 59

attribution and utility value, their actions were not always aligned with their espoused beliefs.
While some faculty members spent time discussing non-academic topics as well as mental health
needs more specifically, many did not, revealing a gap in practice.
Organizational Results
Six questions assessed potential organizational influences, specifically focused on the
Graduate School of Education’s cultural setting and cultural model. Four questions were
quantitative in nature and were assessed using the six-point Likert scale ranging from strongly
disagree to strongly agree. As with the knowledge and motivation Likert scale questions, the
organization questions were analyzed by calculating the percentage of respondents who chose
each option. Two additional questions asked faculty members to identify additional mental
health supports the Graduate School of Education might add, first by selecting from a list of
available options and then by being given the opportunity to write in their own. These questions
were analyzed by calculating the percentage of respondents who chose each item. Table 11
displays the results for the four quantitative questions and Table 12 displays results for the
question where faculty members selected from a pre-set list of possible additional supports. It is
important to note that for this question, each faculty member could choose multiple supports, so
percentages for all supports together add up to more than 100. The second question was
qualitative in nature and asked faculty members to write in additional supports; those data were
used to supplement the existing quantitative and qualitative organizational data.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 60

Table 11
Faculty Members’ Perceptions of Organizational Needs with Regards to Mental Health
Concerns
Item
%
Strongly
disagree
%
Disagree
%
Somewhat
Disagree
%
Somewhat
agree
%
Agree
%
Strongly
agree
It is part of my role to
support teachers’
academic success.
0 0 0 0 23.81 71.43
It is part of my role to
support teachers’ well-
being outside of their
coursework.
0 0 0 19.05 33.33 47.62
Graduate School of
Education has provided
me with the necessary
training to support
teachers’ mental health.
23.81 23.81 23.81 28.57 0 0
Graduate School of
Education, as an
institution, provides the
necessary supports for
teachers with mental
health challenges.
9.52 23.81 33.33 23.81 9.52 0

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 61

Table 12
Faculty Members’ Suggestions for Additional Organizational Supports

% faculty members
who selected option
# faculty members
who selected option
None 0 0
Trained counselor 90.48 19
Mental health training for faculty members 76.19 16
In-person mental health support for teachers 95.24 20
Phone helpline 71.43 15

The data revealed the expected gap in cultural setting, that there is no health center, no
trained counselor, and that faculty members see this as an area for concern. Zero percent of
faculty members strongly agreed that the Graduate School of Education provided the necessary
supports for teachers experiencing mental health challenges while 9.52%, or two faculty
members, agreed and 23.81 somewhat agreed. The majority of respondents, 66.67% fell in the
various disagree categories. This indicated that most faculty members believe the Graduate
School of Education could be doing more to support teachers’ mental health needs.
Data around specific areas of need, which directly aligned with the first organizational
gap, were pulled from another question, in which faculty members selected the additional
supports they thought the Graduate School of Education might add. This data definitively
demonstrated the existence of an organizational gap, as 90.48% of faculty members selected
trained counselor and 95.24% selected in-person mental health support for teachers. Although
not as complete, with only seven faculty members writing in additional supports, the qualitative
data did further support this gap, as faculty members cited a “walk-in counseling center” and
mental health professionals.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 62

The survey also revealed a need for further supports for faculty members. Zero percent
of faculty members agreed or strongly agreed that the Graduate School of Education has
provided them with the necessary training, while 28.57% somewhat agreed. Overall, 71.43% of
respondents selected somewhat disagree, disagree, or strongly disagree for this question,
indicating that faculty members felt they needed more support themselves from the organization.
The other organizational questions supported this perceived area of need, as 76.19% of faculty
members selected mental health training for faculty members and a few write-in responses
included specific references to faculty member training.
The survey validated the expected cultural model influence, that faculty members are
invested in teachers’ academic and professional success, as an area of strength. However, there
were differences in how various faculty members responded to questions about their
responsibilities in providing academic versus non-academic supports. In response to the
statement, “It is part of my role as an advisor to support my graduate students’ academic
success,” 95.24% of faculty members agreed or strongly agreed, with the remaining 4.76%, or
one respondent, leaving the question blank. In contrast, responses to the statement “It is part of
my role as an advisor to support my graduate students’ general well-being, outside of their
coursework,” were less overwhelmingly positive, as 80.95% of respondents selected agree or
strongly agree and 19.05% selected somewhat agree. The data indicated that while all faculty
members saw academic advisement as part of their role, they were less definitive about non-
academic advisement. Thus, while the organizational influence was borne out, the data revealed
this influence to be more complex than originally thought.
Findings
Three themes emerged from qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and these three
themes aligned with and sought to answer the four research questions. The first theme was
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 63

faculty members’ attitudes towards advisement, which was broken out into two sub-themes,
academic advisement and non-academic advisement. This theme aligned with and sought to
answer the second research question, “What are faculty members’ knowledge and motivation
related to discussing mental health concerns and/ or supports with teachers?” with a particular
focus on the motivation aspect of the research question. The second theme was mental health
knowledge versus practice, with sub-themes of knowledge and practice. This theme answered
the knowledge portion of the second research question as well as the third research question,
“What is the interaction between organizational culture and context and faculty members’
knowledge and motivation?” Finally, the third theme was attitudes and beliefs about
organizational supports, with two sub-themes of more support for teachers and more support for
faculty members. This theme responded to the first research question, “To what extent is the
Graduate School of Education meeting its goal of developing a resource for faculty members to
help them in supporting teachers’ mental health needs?”
In the following sections, each theme and sub-theme will be analyzed using the study’s
quantitative and qualitative data and will then be linked back to the applicable research question.
The fourth research question, “What are the recommendations for organizational practice in the
areas of knowledge, motivation, and organizational resources?,” will be answered in Chapter
Five, which will provide detailed recommendations based on existing research and this study’s
data.
Attitudes Towards Advisement
The first theme, attitudes towards advisement, responded to the motivation aspect of the
research question, “What are faculty members’ knowledge and motivation related to discussing
mental health concerns and/ or supports with teachers?” In order to explore faculty members’
attitudes and motivation towards mental health supports, survey data pertaining to beliefs about
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 64

academic supports was also collected in order to determine whether beliefs about academic
versus non-academic supports differed. As faculty members at the Graduate School of
Education serve as holistic advisors to teachers in the MAT program, they are empowered (and
taught) to think about teachers’ academic as well as non-academic needs. While not all non-
academic advisement involves explicit mental health support, the phrase “non-academic
advisement” was found to be a helpful proxy for encompassing the other work in which faculty
members engage, in order to support teachers (e.g. phone conversations, text messages, checking
in at the beginning of class, conversations with school leaders, etc.). Ultimately, attitude towards
advisement provided information about faculty members’ utility value with regards to addressing
teachers’ mental health concerns. If faculty members see the importance of both academic and
non-academic advisement, they will be more likely to be invested in supporting teachers’ mental
health.
Academic Advisement
Overall, survey data supported the finding that faculty members saw the importance of
academic advisement. Of faculty members surveyed, 95.24% agreed or strongly agreed that it
was part of their role to support teacher’s academic success. The other 4.76% accounted for one
faculty member who left this question blank. This showed that almost all faculty members saw
academic advisement as a part of their job description. Commitment to academic advisement
also emerged through faculty responses to an item designed to assess how much time faculty
members actually spent on academic advisement. For instance, when asked how many hours
faculty members spent each week focused on academic advisement, the median was ten hours,
which represents about a quarter of their work week—a significant amount of time. Taken
together, these data demonstrated that faculty members saw academic advisement as part of their
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 65

job description and that they put this belief into action, through the time that they spent
supporting teachers’ academic work.
Non-Academic Advisement
Unlike with academic advisement, faculty members’ attitudes towards non-academic
advisement were less unified, showing a gap in some faculty members’ motivation to discuss
mental health concerns with teachers. Faculty members did indicate that they felt it important to
address mental health concerns when they arose, with 95.24% agreeing or strongly agreeing with
the statement, “I think it is important for me to address mental health concerns in students when
they materialize.” However, the degree to which they embraced this as part of their formal role
differed from faculty member to faculty member. In response to the statement, “It is part of my
role as an advisor to support my graduate students’ general well-being outside of their
coursework,” 80.95% agreed or strongly agreed. While 80.95% still represented the majority of
faculty members, the difference between it and the 95.24% who agreed or strongly agreed that it
was part of their role to support teacher’s academic success showed a gap between attitudes
towards academic advisement and non-academic advisement.
This gap between attitudes towards academic and non-academic advisement was further
illuminated in analyzing responses to the item asking faculty members to indicate how many
academic advisement conversations also involved discussion of a non-academic topic. Only
33.33% of faculty members selected “all” or “most,” while an equal percentage, 33.33% selected
“almost none” or “some.” The six faculty members who entered numbers in response to the
prompt displayed a similar divide, with three entering either one or two conversations and the
other three entering either 10 or 14. This data showed that faculty members’ practice with
regards to non-academic advisement mirrored their attitudes towards it, showing an ambivalence
towards the non-academic advisement aspect of their role.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 66

It is possible that faculty members’ attitudes towards non-academic advisement were
colored by their perception of their own efficacy. In response to the statement “My support can
have a positive impact on graduate students’ mental well-being,” 90.48% agreed or strongly
agreed while 4.76% somewhat agreed and 4.76% somewhat disagreed. This data showed that
while most faculty members recognized the importance of their support for teachers’ mental
health, a few did not. The qualitative data supported this hypothesis, as a few faculty members
alluded to feelings of decreased self-efficacy around advisement in general as well as supporting
teachers’ mental health more specifically. In response to the prompt “Please write in any further
support(s) you think might be helpful,” one faculty member stated, “As we have a lot of
responsibilities and are not formally trained individuals with a Ph.D., MD, or LCSW, I would not
be comfortable having an in-depth conversation or giving advice.” Another faculty member
echoed this gap in self-efficacy by noting, “As a faculty member, I've been trained in my
discipline, but I don't feel very well equipped to help students' mental health.” Both these
comments shed light on the experience of at least a few faculty members of not feeling
professionally equipped to support teachers’ mental health. They may help to explain why all
faculty members saw academic support as part of their role but not all saw non-academic support
in the same light.
Overall, the results of the second research question, as to whether faculty members felt
motivated to discuss mental health concerns with teachers, were mixed. While many faculty
members saw non-academic advisement as part of their role, this represented a smaller
percentage than those who saw academic advisement as part of their role. In addition, several
faculty members indicated that they were having almost no non-academic related conversations
with teachers. The data indicated that work remains to be done to motivate all faculty members
to see mental health and non-academic support as equally important as academic support and to
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 67

ensure that faculty members are engaged in non-academic as well as academic advisement
conversations with teachers. As Rueda (2011) points out, the more an individual values an
activity, the more likely they are to choose, persist, and engage in it. If faculty members do not
actually value non-academic conversations, they will not have them, either now or in the future,
thus denying teachers the support they need.
Mental Health Knowledge Versus Practice
The second theme throughout the survey was the difference between faculty members’
knowledge of mental health symptoms and their actual advisement practices with teachers. This
theme was in response to the knowledge portion of the second research question. It also
responded to the third research question, “What is the interaction between organizational culture
and context and faculty members’ knowledge and motivation?” This section includes data
related to the faculty members’ mental health knowledge, followed by data related to faculty
members’ practice, in order to show the gaps between the two. The analysis will help shed light
on the influence of faculty members’ factual knowledge and how it impacts daily advisement
practices. According to Schraw and McCrudden (2006), the way that knowledge is organized
can influence how people apply what they know, and this section shows a disconnect between
knowledge and application, which ultimately, may help to determine next steps for faculty
development in the area of knowledge application.
Faculty Members’ Mental Health Knowledge
Despite their feelings to the contrary, many faculty members displayed a general
knowledge of mental health symptoms. In response to the statement, “I have the necessary
knowledge to support teachers with mental health concerns,” only 9.52% agreed or strongly
agreed while 33.33% disagreed or strongly disagreed. Overall, the majority of faculty members,
61.9%, placed themselves in one of the disagree categories. This showed that faculty members
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 68

did not feel they had the knowledge needed to support teachers’ mental health. However,
responses to this question were not congruent with the qualitative data, which showed a general
knowledge of mental health symptoms.
In response to the question, “In terms of mental health, what behaviors or symptoms
would cause you concern, if you observed them in a graduate student?” many faculty members
were able to name symptoms specifically tied to clinical definitions of mental health concerns.
For example, seven out of 21 respondents cited crying, a symptom of depression (Pratt & Brody,
2014), while others referenced a general sadness. Several faculty members cited teachers feeling
overwhelmed about assignments or coursework, a symptom common to anxiety (Parekh, 2017).
Still others referenced depersonalization, one of the aspects of burnout (Maslach, Jackson, and
Leiter (1997), with responses such as “speaking about children/schools in negative/harmful
ways” and “displays evidence of being disconnected, disengaged, or removed from
coursework/class work.” These responses indicate that while faculty members may not feel
equipped to support teachers who display symptoms of mental health concerns, they are often
able to recognize those symptoms. This is in keeping with findings from Loades and
Mastroyannopoulou’s 2010 study, which showed that, when given a series of hypothetical
scenarios, primary school teachers were able to recognize the existence of mental health
concerns.
In addition to being able to provide clinical symptoms of mental health concerns,
however, the qualitative data showed faculty members’ awareness of individual teachers’ needs
and situations, something that was not explicitly surveyed. In fact, many responses seemed to
allude to specific teachers and concerns that faculty members had about their behavior. One
faculty member noted, “I've noticed teachers act timid in class, tear up easily” while another said
“If I have a relationship with the student, not hearing back over a long period of time could cause
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 69

me to inquire how they are doing in general.” Still another faculty member said “I have had a
couple of experiences this year with students who fall into this category, one who texted me to
say that she was thinking about hurting herself.” All these comments showed that faculty
members were thinking about their knowledge of mental health concerns in very concrete ways
as they applied to particular teachers.
Despite this knowledge of individual situations, fewer faculty members possessed the
knowledge that new teachers were more likely to experience challenges with mental health than
their peers. Of faculty members surveyed, 47.62% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement
while 33.33% somewhat agreed and 19.04% somewhat disagreed or strongly disagreed. This
showed that while faculty members might be sympathetic to teachers’ mental health needs, they
may not be anticipating them or actively looking out for symptoms. Overall, with regards to the
second research question, faculty members showed knowledge of general symptoms of mental
health, but fewer displayed knowledge of the higher prevalence of mental health challenges
among new teachers.
Faculty Members’ Practice
While the majority of faculty members showed a general knowledge of mental health
symptoms, their actual advising around these concerns was more mixed, with a distinct range in
practice. When asked to indicate how many advisees they had spoken with about mental health
concerns, the range was 30, with the majority of faculty members falling in the two to five range.
Based on this range and depending on advisee load, this might mean that faculty members were
speaking with between three and 13 percent of their advisees about mental health needs, a small
percentage when considering the fact that new teachers are more susceptible to mental health
concerns. It is also notable that one faculty member entered a zero for this question, showing
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 70

that they spoke with no teachers about mental health needs in the past year. This data indicated
that a gap may exist between faculty members’ knowledge and actual advisement practices.
In response to the second research question, it appeared that faculty members possessed
some knowledge of mental health symptoms, although they might not have seen this in
themselves and their ability to apply this knowledge might be mixed. With regards to the third
research question’s focus on organizational culture and context, it appeared that overall, there
was a culture of supporting teachers’ mental health needs but that some faculty members still
saw a difference between academic and non-academic advisement responsibilities. This gap in
culture may explain why the survey indicated that some faculty members devoted considerable
time to conversations around general non-academic issues as well as mental health concerns
while others devoted little to none.
Attitudes and Beliefs About Organizational Supports
The final theme that emerged from quantitative and qualitative data was faculty
members’ beliefs about organizational supports, which addressed the first research question, “To
what extent is the Graduate School of Education meeting its goal of developing a resource for
faculty members to help them in supporting teachers’ mental health needs?” In addition to
faculty beliefs about their own support, a second sub-theme emerged, regarding their beliefs
about teachers’ support.
More Support for Faculty Members
Faculty members indicated that the Graduate School of Education should be providing
them with more training in order to support teachers. In response to the prompt, “Graduate
School of Education has provided me with the necessary training to support my advisees’ mental
health,” 28.57% somewhat agreed, 23.81% somewhat disagreed, and 71.43% disagreed or
strongly disagreed. This showed that the majority of faculty members found their own training
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 71

to be lacking. This was supported by the fact that, when asked what additional supports the
organization should provide, 76.19% of faculty members selected mental health training for
faculty members. This quantitative data shows that the majority of faculty members would like
explicit training around supporting teachers’ mental health.
The qualitative data further supports this assertion. When asked to write in other useful
supports, several faculty members explicitly named further training for faculty members. For
example, one faculty member noted “I think… [faculty members] should be trained in spotting
mental health concerns and having a conversation to lead a… [teacher] to the appropriate
person/resource.” Other faculty members also mentioned further training or professional
development. One said, “Increase the ratio of time spent on advising training” and another noted
“I would really appreciate more explicit PD :).” Taken together, the quantitative and qualitative
data show that faculty members would like more organizational assistance and training in order
to help them support teachers’ mental health needs.
More Support for Teachers
A second sub-theme emerged from the data, that faculty members felt more
organizational support should be provided to teachers. In response to the statement “Graduate
School of Education, as an institution, provides the necessary supports for graduate students who
are experiencing challenges with their mental health,” only 9.52% of faculty members, or two
total, agreed, while the majority, 66.67%, somewhat disagreed, disagreed or strongly disagreed.
This showed that for the most part, faculty felt the school could be doing more to support
teachers’ mental health needs. In addition, when asked to select supports that the Graduate
School of Education could add to help aid teachers’ mental health, the two top choices were
specifically connected to teacher support. They were “in-person mental health support for
graduate students” and “trained counselor,” at 95.24% and 90.48% respectively, highlighting the
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 72

fact that faculty members saw direct teacher support as an area of need. It is worth noting that
for this question, no faculty members selected “none” as an option, indicating that all faculty see
teacher support as an area of growth for the institution.
The qualitative data supported this faculty-perceived gap. One faculty member noted, “I
think a walk-in counseling center would be very helpful for our graduate students,” while
another stated, “At... [Graduate School of Education] we really need some mental health
professionals or other modes of support.” The comments indicated that faculty members felt the
need for further organizational supports directed at teachers and their mental health needs, in
addition to further supports for faculty members.
In response to the first research question, “To what extent is the Graduate School of
Education meeting its goal of developing a resource for faculty members to help them in
supporting teachers’ mental health needs?” the data indicated that faculty members still
perceived a gap in their preparation and felt the need for more supports related to teachers’
mental health such as professional development and more specific advisement training. In
addition to a desire for their own development, however, faculty members also expressed a
desire for more mental health supports for teachers, in the form of trained counselors and in-
person supports.
Conclusion
Overall, the qualitative and quantitative data revealed the existence of some gaps in
knowledge, motivation, and organizational supports needed to achieve the stakeholder goal that
by January 2021, Graduate School of Education's New York campus will have developed a
resource for faculty members to help them in supporting teachers’ mental health needs. Both
anticipated knowledge gaps were validated to some degree, although not to the extent that was
originally anticipated, as some faculty members’ knowledge aligned with clinical descriptions of
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 73

mental health symptoms. For the two motivation influences, gaps were also found, although
they proved more complex than originally anticipated. While faculty members’ self-reported
utility value was positive, a gap was found between their espoused beliefs and their actual
advisement practices. Finally, the anticipated organizational gap was validated, in that faculty
members expressed the need for more formal organizational supports for teachers’ mental health.
Recommendations for next steps will be made in Chapter Five.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 74

CHAPTER FIVE: RECOMMENDATIONS
In this chapter, recommendations will be provided based on confirmed gaps in
knowledge, motivation, and organizational areas. As the Graduate School of Education is an
alternative certification program with faculty members fulfilling the role of academic advisors as
well as instructors and classroom coaches, recommendations are specific to the particular context
of this study. Gaps in knowledge, motivation and organization have been confirmed based on
research conducted with the stakeholder group of focus, faculty members at the Graduate School
of Education. Recommendations will be developed based on learning theory as well as empirical
data from outside research and will be implemented primarily through a training program for
faculty members, designed to build their knowledge, skills, and motivation related to supporting
new teachers’ mental health. This three session in-person program will include activities
designed to help with knowledge acquisition, building faculty members’ awareness of their role
in supporting new teachers, and opportunities for practicing conversations with teachers.
Ultimately, the success of this training program will be assessed using the Kirkpatrick New
World Model (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016) which consists of four assessment levels.
In the Kirkpatrick New World Model, Level 1 is reaction, or how participants feel about
the training, Level 2 is learning, or what knowledge and skills participants take away from it,
Level 3 is behavior, or the degree to which participants actually apply what they have learned on
the job, and Level 4 is results, or the extent to which the training actually resulted in desired goal
being met. In the New World Model, planning for assessment begins with Level 4, so as to bring
the results and desired outcomes to the forefront of the design process. This model, paired with
Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analysis framework of knowledge, motivation, and organization
helps to structure a plan for addressing confirmed institutional gaps as well as a way of assessing
the training meant to close those gaps.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 75

Organizational Context and Mission
Graduate School of Education was founded in 2011 in New York to teach “teachers and
school leaders to develop in all students the academic skills and strength of character needed to
succeed in college and life” (Relay GSE, 2017). Graduate School of Education was the first
independent graduate school of education to receive accreditation in New York in over 80 years
(Relay GSE, 2017) and was created to serve district and charter school teachers pursuing
alternative route teaching certification. In practice, this means that graduate students are full-
time, novice classroom teachers who fulfill their degree requirements at night and on weekends,
through a blended online and in-person curriculum.
Graduate School of Education has expanded significantly since its founding, currently
serving approximately 3,500 graduate students (both teachers and school leaders) at campuses in
ten different states. While Graduate School of Education runs certification programs whose foci
range from special education to leadership, the majority of its students are working towards a
two-year Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree which is intended to reflect the more
practice-based approach of the institution, in addition to their state-required teaching
certification. Of the four hundred students in Graduate School of Education’s MAT program,
26% identify as black or African American, 8% identify as Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific
Islander, 25% identify as white, and 13.5% identify as Hispanic or Latino, with the remaining
27.5 choosing not to identify their race or ethnicity. The student body is made up of 67.2% of
students identifying as female and 31% identifying as male. For the 2018-2019 academic year,
the Graduate School had a 23% attrition rate, with 14% of students who left citing certification
as a reason, 12% personal, 14% citing academic, and 7% medical (Relay GSE, 2019). While
these numbers are not explicitly tied to mental health, they do provide some insight into the
reasons behind teacher attrition at Graduate School.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 76

Organizational Performance Goal
The organizational performance goal is that by January 2021, Graduate School of
Education's New York campus will have developed a resource for faculty members to help them
in supporting teachers’ mental health needs. The achievement of this goal will be measured by
reviewing the resources offered to faculty members in January of 2021.
Description of Stakeholder Groups
Three crucial stakeholder groups for ensuring graduate students’ mental health and
developing and presenting a selection of resources related to wellness, mental health education,
and support are faculty members, members of the leadership team, and graduate students
themselves. Faculty members at Graduate School of Education are in a unique position as they
serve multiple roles. Each faculty member works with a group of 10-60 graduate students for the
entire academic year, teaching them, serving as their academic advisor, and coaching them in
their classrooms. Because they serve as the primary point of contact for graduate students,
faculty members will be critical stakeholders in achieving the goal and in particular for
disseminating information about how to access the available resources. A second stakeholder
group, the members of Graduate School of Education’s New York’s leadership team, also take
responsibility for disseminating information (as they themselves serve as graduate students’
teachers, advisors, and coaches) as well as providing time and space for faculty members to plan
out how to present the resources to graduate students. Finally, graduate students comprise a third
important stakeholder group, whom faculty members and leaders are ultimately serving. While
they are not responsible for meeting the goals assumed by faculty members and leadership, they
will need to be able to access the resources around wellness, mental health education, and
support, as this directly impacts graduate student success, both as teachers and students.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 77

Goal of the Stakeholder Group for the Study
By November 2020, 90% of faculty members will have explicitly discussed mental health
concerns and/or supports with teachers, either during in-person classes or one-on-one check ins.
Purpose of the Project and Questions
The purpose of this project was to evaluate the degree to which Graduate School of
Education is meeting its goal that by January 2021, Graduate School of Education's New York
campus will have developed a resource for faculty members to help them in supporting teachers’
mental health needs. The analysis focused on knowledge, motivation and organizational
influences related to achieving the organizational goals. While a complete performance
evaluation would have focused on all stakeholders, for practical purposes the stakeholder of
focus in this analysis was teachers in Graduate School of Education’s MAT (Master of Arts in
Teaching) program in New York City. As such, the following questions guided the evaluation
study:
1. To what extent is the Graduate School of Education meeting its goal of developing a
resource for faculty members to help them in supporting teachers’ mental health needs?
2. What are faculty members’ knowledge and motivation related to discussing mental health
concerns and/ or supports with teachers?
3. What is the interaction between organizational culture and context and faculty members’
knowledge and motivation?
4. What are the recommendations for organizational practice in the areas of knowledge,
motivation, and organizational resources?

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 78

Recommendations for Practice to Address KMO Influences
Knowledge Recommendations
Introduction. In this section, assumed knowledge gaps will be reviewed, along with
aligned recommended solutions. The two knowledge gaps that were validated based on data
analysis in Chapter 4 are both declarative in nature: that faculty members need to be able to
name and identify symptoms of mental health concerns and that faculty members need to possess
a general knowledge that there is a higher prevalence of mental health concerns among newer
teachers than the larger population. These two influences were selected based on the conceptual
framework for this study as well as Krathwohl’s (2002) revised Bloom’s taxonomy. They were
originally chosen because of the crucial role that knowledge can play in narrowing or widening
existing organizational performance gaps (Clark & Estes, 2008). Faculty members’ knowledge
of mental health symptoms and knowledge of new teachers’ susceptibility to mental health
concerns play a critical part in faculty members’ ability to provide teachers with adequate
support.
Recommendations for addressing the two knowledge gaps can be seen in Table 13 and
have been developed based on theoretical principles as well as pertinent empirical evidence.
They are, respectively, to provide faculty members with a “cheat sheet” that incorporates graphic
organizers, with common mental health concerns and observable symptoms and behaviors and to
provide faculty members with a sheet that includes statistics showing a higher prevalence of
mental health concerns among newer teachers versus the population at large, as well as
individual teacher anecdotes. Steps for achieving these recommendations will be discussed in
further detail later in the chapter.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 79

Table 13
Summary of Knowledge Influences and Recommendations
Assumed Knowledge
Influence
Validated
as a Gap?
Priority
(Y, N)
Principle and
Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
(D) Faculty members
need to be able to name
and identify symptoms
of mental health
concerns.
Y Y How individuals
organize
knowledge
influences how they
learn and apply
what they know
(Schraw &
McCrudden, 2006).
Provide faculty
members with a
“cheat sheet” that
incorporates graphic
organizers, with
common mental
health concerns and
observable
symptoms and
behaviors.
(D) Faculty members
need to possess a
general knowledge that
there is a higher
prevalence of mental
health concerns among
newer teachers than the
larger population.
Y N Information learned
meaningfully and
connected
with prior
knowledge is stored
more quickly and
remembered
more accurately
because it is
elaborated with
prior learning
(Schraw &
McCrudden, 2006).
Provide faculty
members with a
sheet that includes
statistics showing a
higher prevalence of
mental health
concerns among
newer teachers
versus the population
at large, as well as
individual teacher
anecdotes.

Faculty members’ declarative knowledge about mental health concerns and
symptoms. According to a survey taken by faculty members at the Graduate School of
Education, approximately 33% of faculty members can name and identify symptoms of mental
health concerns. This gap in knowledge can be connected to a potential solution rooted in
information processing system theory. Schraw and McCrudden (2006) state that how individuals
organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know. If faculty members
can more effectively learn to identify symptoms of mental health, they can better support
teachers. In order to do so, the recommendation is for Graduate School of Education to provide
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 80

faculty members with a “cheat sheet” that includes common mental health concerns, as well as
observable symptoms and behaviors.
Kools, van de Wiel, Ruiter, Crüts, and Kok (2006) looked at the effect of graphic
organizers in aiding participants’ comprehension of health education texts. They studied the
comprehension of 46 undergraduate students in the Netherlands after half read a text about
asthma with graphic organizers and half read a text without graphic organizers. Ultimately,
Kools, et al. (2006) found that students who had been given materials that incorporated graphic
organizers displayed higher rates of comprehension than their peers who were given the same
information in plain text form. These findings support the recommendation that providing
faculty members with a cheat sheet that incorporates graphic organizers would be an effective
way of increasing their knowledge around mental health.
Faculty members’ knowledge of the prevalence of mental health concerns. In the
survey of Graduate School of Education faculty members, 47.62% of participants agreed or
strongly agreed that newer teachers are more likely to experience challenges with mental health
than their more experienced peers, while 33.33% somewhat agreed. While this gap in
knowledge is not as large as originally thought, it still represents an area for growth. This gap in
knowledge is also connected to information processing system theory, although more specifically
to memory. According to Schraw and McCrudden (2006), information learned meaningfully and
connected with prior knowledge is stored more quickly and remembered more accurately
because it is elaborated with prior learning. If faculty members can internalize the new
knowledge of the higher prevalence of mental health concerns among newer teachers, they will
be better positioned to look for warning signs and thus, better support teachers. The
recommendation is to provide faculty members with a sheet that includes statistics showing a
higher prevalence of mental health concerns among newer teachers versus the population at
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 81

large, in addition to narrative statements from individual teachers experiencing mental health
concerns.
Chang (2008) studied the benefits of increasing mental health literacy and decreasing
stigma through narrative advertising, which emphasizes individuals’ stories and connections
between different events. In Taiwan, 264 college students rated their attitudes towards two
different types of advertisements (narrative as opposed to argument), which both depicted
symptoms of depression as well as treatment tips. Chang found that subjects displayed more
sympathy towards people and stories depicted in narrative ads as opposed to argumentative ads,
thus highlighting the importance of incorporating narratives and stories as a part of mental health
training. This study supports the recommendation to provide faculty members with a sheet that
includes statistics about the prevalence of mental health concerns, as well as anecdotes from
individual teachers.
Motivation Recommendations
Introduction. In this section, assumed motivation influences will be reviewed, along
with aligned recommended solutions. Two motivational gaps aligned with survey research were
that faculty members should understand the importance of addressing teachers’ mental health
concerns for teachers’ academic and professional success and that faculty members should
understand the vital role they can personally play in helping teachers who may have symptoms
of mental health concerns. These two influences were selected based on their primacy in
enabling faculty members to fully support teachers’ mental health. Of these two influences, the
first is based on the concept of utility value, or the extent to which a person feels an activity will
help bring their short or long-term goals to fruition (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). The second is
based on attribution theory, which sees motivation as a result of how people understand the
reasons behind an event (Weiner, 1972). Both influences as well as principles and
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 82

recommendations are based in the frameworks of Clark and Estes (2008), Rueda (2011), and
Pintrich (2003).
Recommendations for addressing the two motivation influences can be seen in Table 14
and have been developed based on theoretical principles as well as pertinent empirical evidence.
They are, respectively, to present faculty with a rationale and data that shows the importance of
addressing mental health concerns for teacher success and to provide attributional retraining, in
the form of data that shows the role that adults/advisors have played in addressing students’
mental health concerns. Steps for achieving these recommendations will be discussed in further
detail later in the chapter.
Table 14
Summary of Motivation Influences and Recommendations
Assumed Motivation
Influence
Validated as
a Gap
Priority
(Y, N)
Principle and
Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
Utility value – faculty
members should
understand the importance
of addressing teachers’
mental health concerns, for
teachers’ academic and
professional success.
Y Yes The more an
individual
values an
activity, the
more likely it
is that they
will choose,
persist, and
engage in it
(Rueda, 2011)
During training,
present rationale and
data that shows the
importance of
addressing mental
health concerns for
teacher success.
Attribution – faculty
members should
understand the vital role
they can personally play in
helping teachers who may
have symptoms of mental
health concerns.
N Yes Attribute
success or
failures to
effort
(Anderman &
Anderman,
2009).
Provide attributional
retraining, in the
form of data that
shows the role that
adults/ advisors have
played in addressing
students’ mental
health concerns.

Faculty utility value and mental health. Of the 40 faculty members surveyed, 95.24%
indicated that they saw the importance of addressing graduate students’ mental health concerns
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 83

(determined by the percentage of faculty members who agreed or strongly agreed). This shows
that little to no gap exists in self-reported beliefs. However, when asked how many teachers
faculty members had actually counselled in the last year around mental health needs, responses
ranged from zero to 30, with a median of 4. This indicates that faculty members may know in
theory that mental health is important, but that they may not see its direct impact on teachers’
academic and professional success. A recommendation to close this gap has been drawn from
the concept of task value, which posits that the more people value an activity, the more likely
they are to choose and persist in it (Rueda, 2011). One particular type of task value, utility value,
refers to how useful someone feels a task is for achieving a goal in the future. Rueda (2011)
pointed out that discussions revolving around the importance and ultimate utility of a task will
result in higher value. Faculty members at the Graduate School of Education would benefit from
training aligned to utility value, so that they internalize the importance of supporting teachers’
mental health needs for teachers’ professional and academic success. For this reason, the
recommendation is to present rationale and data that shows the importance of addressing mental
health concerns for teachers’ academic and professional success.
Kitchener and Jorm (2004) studied the impact of mental health first aid training in a
workplace setting. Using a randomized controlled trial, they taught a course that covered how to
help people in mental health crises, symptoms, possible risk factors, where and how to get help,
and evidenced-based effective help. Based on pre-and post-test data, Kitchener and Jorm (2004)
determined that, compared with the control group, the experimental group’s beliefs about mental
health treatments became more concordant with those of health professionals and that this same
group experienced an increase in their confidence in providing help. This shows that training
does positively impact people’s perceptions of the importance of mental health interventions,
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 84

thus underscoring the recommendation to present rationale and data that shows the importance of
addressing mental health concerns.
Faculty members’ attributions. The vast majority of faculty members indicated that
they personally play a role in supporting teachers’ mental health needs, as 90.48% selected
“agree” or “strongly agree” in response to the statement, “my support can have a positive impact
on graduate students’ mental well-being.” If this had been validated, a recommendation based in
attribution theory would have been chosen to close this gap in motivation. Anderman and
Anderman (2009) state that when people attribute their successes or failures to effort, they are
more likely to engage in tasks. This would suggest that faculty members need to be reminded
that they can, in fact, be successful in providing support to teachers with mental health concerns.
The resultant recommendation is to provide attributional retraining in the form of data and
studies that show the role that close adults/advisors have played in addressing students’ mental
health concerns.
Perry, Stupnisky, Hall, Chipperfield, and Weiner (2010) studied the benefits of
attributional retraining in high achievement situations. They divided 459 first year students into
two groups—one that received attributional retraining (AR) and one that did not, in an attempt to
find AR’s impact. Perry, Stupnisky, Hall, Chipperfield, and Weiner (2010) found that the
experimental group ended up with higher grades and more positive emotions after the treatment,
thus showing the efficacy of AR. This study supports the recommendation to provide
attributional retraining to faculty members, as faculty members would benefit from being
presented with data that shows the role that close adults/advisors have played in addressing
students’ mental health concerns.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 85

Organization Recommendations
Introduction. In this section, organizational influences will be reviewed, along with
recommended solutions. Although two influences were identified in this study’s methodological
framework in Chapter 2, only one of them was validated as a gap—that The Graduate School of
Education does not employ any trained mental health counselors. This gap was chosen based in
Gallimore & Goldenberg’s (2001) concept of cultural setting, which avers that the context in
which work is happening (in this case, the makeup of the staff) can have an important impact on
how and whether tasks and goals are completed. Clark and Estes’ (2008) Framework for
performance solutions was also used.
A recommendation for closing this gap has been developed based on relevant principles
as well as empirical evidence and can be seen in Table 15 below. It is that the organization will
set aside dedicated funds for hiring mental health counselors and steps for achieving these
recommendations will be discussed in further detail later in the chapter.
Table 15
Summary of Organization Influences and Recommendations
Assumed Organization
Influence
Validated
as a Gap
Priority
(Y, N)
Principle and
Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
Cultural Setting: The
Graduate School of
Education does not employ
any trained mental health
counselors.
Y Y "Organizations...
require tangible
supplies and
equipment to
achieve goals" (p.
105)
(Clark & Estes,
2008).
Set aside
dedicated funds
for hiring mental
health counselors.

Cultural setting and mental health counselors. When asked what additional supports
the Graduate School of Education could provide to help aid teachers’ mental health, 90.48% of
faculty members selected trained mental health counselors. This further underscores the fact that
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 86

none are currently on staff. This gap connects with a solution based in the theory of cultural
setting, which refers to the concrete context in which work is being done—the who, what, when,
where, and why (Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001). With regards to cultural setting, Clark and
Estes (2008) note that organizations... require tangible supplies and equipment to achieve goals"
(p. 105), which highlights the importance of having trained mental health counselors in order to
support teachers’ mental health. Thus, the recommendation is to set aside dedicated funds for
hiring mental health counselors.
In the 2014 National Survey of College Centers, directors of counseling centers at 275
two and four year colleges and universities were surveyed on trends in counseling and mental
health on their campuses. In the survey, 94% of directors reported seeing an increase in serious
psychological concerns and revealed that on average, 11% of students sought counseling services
(Gallagher, 2015). This demonstrates a national need for counseling that the Graduate School of
Education must heed. In response to this demand, schools reported increasing their counseling
services in various ways. Overall, 29% increased part-time counselors during busy times of the
year, 26% increased counseling staff year-round, and 20% increased psychiatric consulting hours
(Gallagher, 2015). These data show that other institutions of higher education are increasing
supports for students based on national trends of mental health needs. The Graduate School of
Education must follow suit, by setting aside dedicated funds, through a line item in the budget,
for hiring mental health counselors.
Integrated Implementation and Evaluation Plan
Implementation and Evaluation Framework
This study will use the New World Kirkpatrick Model (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016)
as the framework for designing an integrated implementation and evaluation plan, based on
validated gaps in knowledge, motivation, and organization. The New World Kirkpatrick Model
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 87

consists of four levels that are required to adequately assess training: reaction, learning, behavior,
and results. All levels should be assessed and the New World Kirkpatrick Model advocates
assessing the levels in reverse, in order to place results at the forefront of training. This reverse
order is especially important as a common pitfall of using this model occurs when organizations
spend the majority of their evaluation resources on Levels 1 and 2, reaction and learning, but fail
to assess Levels 3 and 4, behavior and results.
For this reason, recommendations for this study begin with Level 4 (results and leading
indicators for both internal and external outcomes). Next, associated Level 3 (critical behaviors,
metrics, methods, and timing for evaluation) will be presented, in addition to required drivers.
Level 2 (learning goals) follow along with the proposed training program and evaluation
methods. Finally, methods for assessing Level 1 are presented, and a summary of the evaluation
tools for all four levels is given.
Organizational Purpose, Need and Expectations
The Graduate School of Education’s mission is to “teach teachers and school leaders to
develop in all students the academic skills and strength of character needed to succeed in college
and life.” The organizational performance goal is that by January 2020, Graduate School of
Education's New York campus will have developed a resource for faculty members to help them
in supporting teachers’ mental health needs. The achievement of this goal will be measured by
reviewing the resources offered to faculty members in January of 2020. This organizational goal
addressed an area of need, that there is little mental health support for teachers enrolled at
Graduate School of Education.
The goal of the stakeholder group of focus, faculty members, is that by November 2019,
90% of faculty members will have explicitly discussed mental health concerns and/ or supports
with teachers, either during in-person classes or one-on-one check ins. As faculty members are
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 88

the members of the Graduate School of Education with the most frequent access to teachers, they
are best equipped to deliver information about mental health supports. This goal directly aligns
with the organizational goal, as faculty members will be able to access the resource in order to
help them present existing mental health supports.
As a result of faculty members explaining and presenting teachers with existing mental
health resources offered by the Graduate School of Education, all teachers will know how to
access help. In addition, they will be reminded of the role that faculty members can play in their
success and that faculty members are willing to help them, in both academic as well as non-
academic areas of need. To supplement faculty presentations, additional information will be
posted in public areas of the Graduate School of Education, with information about existing
mental health supports. This will further increase teachers’ access to resources and will serve to
reinforce faculty presentations.
Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators
Table 16 shows the proposed Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators expressed through
outcomes, metrics and methods for both external and internal outcomes for the Graduate School
of Education. If the internal outcomes are achieved as a result of training and larger
organizational support for supporting teachers’ mental health, then the external outcomes should
also be realized.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 89

Table 16

Outcomes, Metrics, and Methods for External and Internal Outcomes
Outcome Metric(s) Method(s)
External Outcomes
Teachers cited lower
levels of stress on
biannual institutional
survey.
Lower percentage of teachers
selected “stressed to a
considerable extent” or “stressed
to a great extent” on biannual
institutional survey.
Research team aggregates data
for NY campus.
Teachers accessed the
Health 101 course.
The number of teachers in the
New York campus who have
accessed Health 101 course in
the Fall semester.
Faculty managers collect and
report data on the number of
teachers accessing the Health
101 course in the Fall semester.
Internal Outcomes
New York campus dean
sets aside dedicated funds
for hiring mental health
counselors.
Dedicated line item in the
budget to hire at least one
faculty member with formal
mental health training (at
minimum a master’s degree).
Dean reports whether line item
has been created to hire a
faculty member with mental
health training.
All faculty members have
passed training in basic
mental health principles.
Completion of training in basic
mental health principles.
Dean and assistant deans will
aggregate data on the number of
faculty members who passed
training in basic mental health
principles.
Professors set aside time
to present every teacher
with the mental health
supports that the Graduate
School of Education
offers, during in-person
class sessions in the Fall
semester.
The number of class sections
that see an in-person
presentation about mental health
supports.
Assistant deans will aggregate
data from individual professors
about how many sections (and
students within each section)
saw the mental health supports
presentation.

Level 3: Behavior
Critical behaviors. The stakeholder of focus are faculty members at the Graduate
School of Education, who will participate in mental health training intended to increase both
their knowledge and motivation. The first critical behavior is to increase the percentage of
faculty members who can name and identify symptoms of mental health concerns. The second
critical behavior is to increase the percentage of faculty members who believe that newer
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 90

teachers are more likely to experience challenges with mental health than their more experienced
peers. The third critical behavior is to increase the percentage of faculty members who believe it
is important to address graduate students’ mental health concerns. Finally, the fourth critical
behavior is to increase the percentage of faculty members who believe that their support can
have a positive impact on graduate students’ mental well-being. The specific metrics, methods,
and timing for each of these outcome behaviors appears in Table 17 below.
Table 17

Critical Behaviors, Metrics, Methods, and Timing for Evaluation
Critical Behavior Metric(s)
Method(s)
Timing
1. Increase the percentage
of faculty members who
can name and identify
symptoms of mental health
concerns.
Increase in percentage
on survey.
Training participants
will be given a survey
following training.
1 month post-
training
2. Faculty members
reference “cheat sheet”
during conversations about
how to best support
teachers.
Number of faculty
members who reference
cheat sheet.
Managers observe
faculty members
during check-ins.
1-3 months
post-training
3. Increase the number of
teachers with whom
faculty members are
speaking about mental
health, either in class or
individually.
Increase the median
number of teachers with
whom faculty members
are speaking about
mental health.
Training participants
will be given the
survey again
following training.
1 month post-
training

Required drivers. Faculty members require the support of managers and deans to
reinforce what they learned in training and to encourage them to apply it with the teachers they
support. Systems for reinforcement and encouragement should be planned out and implemented
in order to enhance this support. Table 18 shows the recommended drivers to support critical
behaviors of faculty members.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 91

Table 18
Required Drivers to Support Critical Behaviors
Method(s) Timing Critical Behaviors Supported
Reinforcing
Created a “cheat sheet” for
faculty members that includes
common mental health
concerns and observable
symptoms and behaviors.
Prior to training 1, 2
Print out “cheat sheet” so
faculty members can keep and
reference it when necessary.
During initial training 1, 2
Implement Office Hours with
mental health counselor when
faculty members can discuss
particular teacher cases.
1x week 1, 3
Encouraging
Managers check in with
faculty members before their
presentations (if necessary
model first and then practice
with faculty member).
Before presentation 2, 3
Rewarding
Managers provide individual
recognition when faculty
members use cheat sheet.
Ongoing 1, 2
Monitoring
Managers observe
presentation to teachers and
give feedback.
September-November 20th 3
Re-administer survey
questions to determine growth
in critical behaviors 1 and 3.
1 month post-training 1, 3
Managers build in time during
weekly check-ins with faculty
members to discuss particular
teacher cases.
Ongoing (at least 1x month) 1, 2, 3

Organizational support. The critical behaviors and required drivers are based on
performance. Improvement will be successful if the recommendations are carried out at the
organizational level. For the stakeholder group of focus, faculty members, to achieve their goal,
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 92

the Graduate School of Education would need to create a “cheat sheet” for faculty members that
includes common mental health concerns and observable symptoms and behaviors. The
organization should print out this sheet and distribute it so that faculty members can keep it and
reference it when necessary. The organization would also need to set up office hours with the
trained mental health counselor so that faculty members can discuss particular teacher cases. In
order to encourage faculty members in their work, managers would check in with faculty
members before their student presentations, and if necessary model the presentation and practice
it with the faculty member. Finally, during their weekly check-ins, managers would provide
individual recognition when faculty members use the cheat sheet, in order to reinforce its
importance.
Level 2: Learning
Learning goals. After completion of the recommended solutions, stakeholders will be
able to:
1. Correctly name and identify symptoms of mental health concerns (D).
2. State that there is a higher prevalence of mental health concerns among newer teachers
than the larger population (D).
3. Believe that mental health can impact the academic and professional success of teachers
(attitude).
4. State the importance of their own role in supporting teachers’ mental health (M).
5. Engage in practicing scenarios with a partner, during which faculty members guide
teachers to Health 101 or other resource (P).
6. Engage in practicing mental health presentation (for teachers) with a partner
(confidence).
7. Develop a plan for making presentation to teachers (commitment).
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 93

Program. The learning goals listed in the previous section will be achieved through
implementation of a training program for faculty members that focuses on strengthening their
knowledge, skills, and overall confidence in identifying common mental health concerns and
symptoms and having conversations with teachers on this topic. While faculty members
currently recognize the primacy of their support and have shown motivation with regards to the
topic of mental health, there is a gap between their beliefs and their daily practice. Faculty
members are not regularly engaging in mental health conversations with teachers, perhaps
because they feel a lack of self-efficacy in this arena. This program is a necessary step in
ensuring that faculty members feel prepared to actually engage in mental health conversations
with teachers.
The proposed training program will be divided into three in-person sessions that take two
hours each, for a total of six hours. The in-person sessions will be structured to move from
knowledge and motivation (in particular, utility value) to actual practice. These three sessions
will be mandatory for all faculty members and will take place during regularly-scheduled faculty
meetings. The first session will focus on learning about common mental health concerns and
symptoms, so that faculty members are grounded in factual knowledge that is relevant to their
daily experiences in supporting new teachers. This session will also examine why the address of
mental health concerns is so important and will examine the connections between mental health
and academic success. The second session will focus on reading, planning for, and role playing
scenarios that faculty members might encounter when speaking with individual teachers during
the course of their advisement responsibilities.
Finally, the third session will involve planning for and practicing a short presentation that
faculty members will later make to teachers about applicable mental health resources. During
this session, faculty members will have the opportunity to see a live model and provide feedback
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 94

on it. They will then plan their own presentation, and then practice and receive feedback in
pairs. Together, all three sessions taken together will ensure that faculty members have a
dedicated time and space to learn and practice the necessary knowledge and skills required for
achieving the stakeholder goal.
Evaluation of the components of learning. Mastery of declarative knowledge is crucial
for the success of the required drivers and by extension, for both internal and external goals to be
met. Participants must also value the training they receive if they are to actually use their newly
acquired knowledge and skills on the job. In addition, participants should also feel confident in
and demonstrate commitment towards applying their knowledge and skills. For these reasons,
Table 19 lists the methods that will be used to evaluate learning goals, as well as the timeline for
each method.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 95

Table 19
Evaluation of the Components of Learning for the Program.
Methods or Activities Timing
Declarative Knowledge “I know it.”
Knowledge check using multiple choice
questions
At the end of the third session, through an exit
ticket
Knowledge checks by listening to table
conversations and conversations with partners,
as well as during responses to scenarios
Periodically throughout the sessions and
documented using observation notes of
participant
Procedural Skills “I can do it right now.”
Skills check by observing individual and
partner work and discussions of scenarios
During second session
Skills check by observing individual
presentations and partner feedback during
presentations practice
During third session
Attitude “I believe this is worthwhile.”
Instructor observations during table
conversations and during responses to
scenarios
Throughout all three sessions
Post-session assessment At the end of the sessions, though an exit ticket
Confidence “I think I can do it on the job.”
Discussions with partners and table groups Throughout all three sessions
Survey item using Likert Scale items At the end of each session
Commitment “I will do it on the job.”
With teaching partner (if applicable), decide
when to make the presentation to teachers and
send an invitation to manager to observe
At the end of the third session
Observations by faculty managers After the training

Level 1: Reaction
Table 20 lists the methods and timing that will be used to assess engagement, relevance,
and satisfaction. If these methods are successfully implemented in the given timeframe, it should
result in learning goals, critical behaviors, and ultimately the stakeholder-specific goal being
met.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 96

Table 20
Components to Measure Reactions to the Program
Method(s) or Tool(s) Timing
Engagement
Observation by instructor During the session
Attendance During the session
Session evaluation One week after the session
Relevance
Periodic pulse checks During the session
Session evaluation One week after the session
Customer Satisfaction
Periodic pulse checks During the session and in informal
conversations after the session
Course evaluation One week after the session

Evaluation Tools
Immediately following the program implementation. Immediately following the three
training sessions, a ten-question assessment will be administered to participants. Please see
Appendix B for the instrument itself. This instrument consists of questions intended to assess
both Level 1and Level 2 of Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick’s (2016) New World Model. The
questions are a combination of multiple choice, using a six-point Likert scale, and open response.
Responses will help to determine participants’ reactions to the program as well as their
knowledge acquisition.
Delayed for a period after the program implementation. Following the three training
sessions, there will be a waiting period to give faculty members time to cement their learning and
implement best practices around mental health advisement. After 90 days, a five-question
survey will be administered to participants. Please see Appendix B for the instrument itself.
This survey consists of a combination of multiple choice items using a six-point Likert scale and
items with selected responses. Stakeholders’ responses to these items will determine their
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 97

longer-term learning and application of the knowledge and skills they learned during the Mental
Health development sessions.
Data Analysis and Reporting
The Level 4 goal of faculty members discussing mental health concerns and/or supports
with teachers will be measured by the conversations that faculty members are having with
teachers, either during one-on-one check-ins or as part of a large class presentation or discussion.
The dashboards below in Figure 3 and Figure 4 will report the data on these measures as a
monitoring and accountability tool and will use data collected through the delayed evaluation
instrument, which can be found in Appendix B. Similar dashboards will be created to monitor
Levels 1, 2 and 3.
Figure 3
Percent of Faculty Members Who Had Conversations with Teachers About Mental Health
Concerns

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 98

Figure 4
Instructor-Student Interactions Around Issues of Mental Health

After administering immediate and delayed instruments, findings will be analyzed and
presented to faculty leaders and managers during a monthly Managers Circle Meeting at the end
of the academic year. The purpose of these ongoing meetings is for managers to have a space to
discuss shared concerns as well as points of success, but it is also to assess the success of new
initiatives. As such, this meeting will be an ideal time to discuss the impact of the training and
allow managers to present qualitative data from check-ins with direct reports. Once data has
been presented during a Managers Circle Meeting, it will also be presented during a campus
meeting, with all faculty members present. During this meeting, smaller groups of faculty
members will analyze the data and will discuss guiding questions about the overall effectiveness
and impact of the training.
Ultimately, data collected through the immediate and delayed instruments will be used to
assess whether this program should be replicated in the future, for new faculty members.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 99

However, data will also be used to determine if this program should be implemented at the
national level, with other campuses. If the program is found to be successful in New York, as
measured by the stakeholder goal being met, then a presentation will be made at an All Campus
Meeting, with deans and operations directors present from all campuses.
Summary
The New World Kirkpatrick Model (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016) was used to first
determine the desired outcomes of the stakeholder goal and then work backwards to develop an
integrated plan for assessing each level of the model. These desired outcomes for Level 4, as
well as the behavior, learning, and reaction for Levels 3, 2, and 1, were developed based on an
analysis of validated gaps in knowledge, motivation, and organization. These gaps were
determined using a survey administered in the spring of 2019 that assessed faculty members’
knowledge and motivation, as well as organizational factors related to supporting new teachers’
mental health.
The benefit of the New World Kirkpatrick Model (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016) in
particular is that it begins with desired results before moving to learning and reaction. This helps
guarantee that the stakeholder goal, in this case that 90% of faculty members will have explicitly
discussed mental health concerns and/or supports with teachers, itself remains central to the
planning process, rather than just participants’ immediate reactions. In addition, the integration
of implementation and evaluation ensures that implementation and evaluation remain aligned
with each other and that evaluation does not become an afterthought of the training process.
Ultimately, organizations want to know that interventions and training has been successful. This
model will first ensure the collection and use of formative data, which will allow trainers to
adjust the program if necessary based on participants’ needs, thus further ensuring the program’s
success. Once the program is complete, aligned summative data will be collected to assess the
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 100

longer-term impact on participants. Ultimately, Graduate School of Education and stakeholders
such as faculty members and teachers will benefit from the clear goals laid out for the training
program, as well as the plan for data collection and presentation. This integrated plan will result
in transparent data sharing as well as clear next steps that are aligned with the program but also
with the stakeholder goal and the organizational goal.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Approach
The Clark and Estes (2008) framework has many strengths but also some potential
weaknesses. One strength lies in the fact that it takes a holistic approach to organizational
change by considering influences derived from knowledge, motivation, and organizational
factors and how they interact with each other to produce desired goals. Focusing on all three
types of influences ensures that no one influence is given primacy at the expense of others and
that the focus or organizational change remains on the people themselves within the
organization, a key tenet of the framework.
The framework also ensures that the emphasis in organizational change efforts is not
merely on employees’ reactions to change but rather on their ability to meet goals. This
movement away from just considering reaction is one that is shared by the Kirkpatrick New
World Model (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). The shift towards specific goals and the
different ways in which employees are equipped (or not) to meet them enables organizations to
pinpoint barriers to change and to identify the reasons behind them. In turn, this better facilitates
a plan for removing barriers.
The focus on goals in particular aligns well with the Graduate School of Education, as it
already utilizes organizational-wide goals as well as aligned team and individual-specific goals.
As goals are already so endemic to the Graduate School of Education, it makes sense that they
would drive this study and form the basis for its conceptual framework. Clark and Estes’ (2008)
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 101

three requirements for goals—that they be concrete, challenging, and current (Clark & Estes,
2008)—are also aligned with the Graduate School of Education’s processes for goal revisions.
Every year, the organization revisits goals to ensure they are measurable, aligned with the
organization’s mission and priorities, and appropriately challenging. Given that goals are
already a part of organizational culture and that structures already exist for assessing progress
throughout the year, using the KMO approach (Clark & Estes, 2008) would not represent a
significant burden on organizational resources.
Although one of the advantages of the KMO (Clark & Estes, 2008) approach is its
inclusive nature, this could also be a potential drawback. It is possible that focusing on so many
potential barriers could result in too much data, thus lessening the chance of successful
organizational change. Clark and Estes (2008) call this phenomenon “analysis paralysis” and
name it as a potential pitfall when gathering data in order to develop goals. In addition to too
much data, Clark and Estes (2008) also caution against “thrashing,” when organizations generate
so many goals that they become meaningless and unaccomplishable. While data generated by
following the KMO framework (Clark & Estes, 2008) can be helpful, it can also result in too
much information.
Another potential drawback to the KMO approach (Clark & Estes, 2008) is the possibility
that it might be taken as “one size fits all.” Clark and Estes’ (2008) framework necessarily
requires organizations to look for trends in data in order to identify barriers and next steps.
However, this means that data related to individuals or smaller groups within an organization
might passed over. As part of the process of identifying whether particular gaps have been
confirmed, nuances within the data might be lost, potentially resulting in less effective change
efforts.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 102

Limitations and Delimitations
Limitations
In addition to potential flaws with the KMO gap analysis format, several limitations of
the study arose during its completion. One unanticipated limitation was the lower percentage of
surveys that were completed. Of 45 faculty members who were sent the survey, 21 ultimately
completed it and signed the informed consent form, resulting in a 46% completion rate. While
this number was still higher than the 40% minimum originally hoped for, it still represented less
than half of participants. Given that the researcher worked with and personally knew all faculty
members surveyed, the hope was that this would result in a higher response rate. In addition,
because the researcher gave a short presentation to faculty members prior to the research team
sending out the survey, the hope was that faculty members’ knowledge of the study would result
in a higher response rate. It is possible that the timing of the survey was less than ideal, as the
spring tends to be busy for faculty members. In addition, while the research team sent out the
survey in order to minimize the primary researchers’ direct reports’ feelings of obligation to
complete the survey, it is possible that completion rates would have been higher if the survey and
subsequent reminders had come directly from the primary researcher herself.
Another potential limitation with the survey itself may have presented as a result of social
desirability bias, when respondents answer questions in ways that they think would be viewed
positively. Survey administration was intended to decrease social desirability bias, as it was
anonymous and completely online. However, it is still possible that faculty members answered
questions in a way that they thought was expected by the organization, thus decreasing the
validity of trends found in the data as well as inferences made about it.
The survey that was administered contained both quantitative and qualitative questions
and three different data sources were ultimately used, thus increasing opportunities for data
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 103

triangulation. However, the qualitative portion of the study would have been further
strengthened by the addition of interviews. Interviews would have furthered participants’
opportunities to elaborate on their knowledge and motivation, as well as their perceptions of
existing organizational supports and needs. While the existing qualitative questions helped shed
light on the problem of practice, interviews would have further reinforced inferences and
conclusions about the organization.
Delimitations
Despite study limitations, the survey format would make it relatively easy to replicate,
either with other campuses of Graduate School of Education or with other organizations looking
to assess their support of teachers’ mental health. If the survey used for this study were sent to
faculty members at other campuses, it would provide information about organization-wide trends
in knowledge, motivation, and organizational gaps. However, because other campuses of
Graduate School of Education are much smaller than the New York campus, the sample size of
faculty members at each campus would also be smaller, so inferences made about individual
campuses might not be as valid.
Despite the fact that more traditional graduate schools of education differ in their
academic advisement and teaching structures, it would still be possible and interesting to
administer the survey with a slightly different population of participants. Either faculty members
alone could be surveyed or academic advisors could be added to the participant pool, to
determine whether there are differences in knowledge, motivation, and attitudes towards
organizational support, depending on the specific role of participants. Depending on the existing
resources at other schools (such as a health center and mental health professionals), the survey
question about additional supports might have to be adjusted slightly to reflect supports not
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 104

already provided. It would also be interesting to see how faculty members from teacher
preparation programs not affiliated with a university respond to the survey.
Future Research
The data collected for this study and analyzed in Chapter Four focused on faculty
members’ mental health knowledge, their motivation, and their perception of organizational
supports. While this data helped shed light on faculty members’ knowledge and motivation, by
design, it did less to illuminate teachers’ needs, as the focus of the study was intended to be on
faculty members as a stakeholder group. Although some data in the current study was pulled and
analyzed in order to demonstrate teachers’ levels of stress, another study would need to be
conducted in order to truly illuminate teachers’ mental health needs.
There are two possibilities for follow-up research specifically focused on teachers’ needs.
One would be a study of teachers enrolled at Graduate School of Education, designed to assess
teachers’ mental health through the lens of depression, anxiety, and burnout. This study would
use pieces from the CED-D (Radloff, 1977) to assess depression, the GAD-7 (Spitzer, Kroenke,
Williams, & Löwe, 2006) to assess anxiety, and the MBI (Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1997) to
assess burnout. As combining all elements from all three measures might prove unwieldy for
both researchers as well as participants, a sampling of questions from each assessment could be
used instead. This would result in a unique study, as it would endeavor to gather data on three
elements of mental health, instead of just one. The result would be a more complete picture of
new teachers’ mental health needs, which would enable the Graduate School of Education to
create more targeted and effective resources to meet teachers’ needs.
The second possibility for follow-up research would be a study examining the
relationship between an element of mental health and some other teacher-related factor such as
self-efficacy, or potentially an academic factor such as GPA. For example, a study could be
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 105

conducted examining the relationship between teacher depression and GPA, to see whether there
are any connections between the two data points. Teachers could be given the CED-D (Radloff,
1977) and a regression analysis could be conducted to determine whether any connections exist
between depression and GPA. Results from this study would also be instrumental in helping to
inform the types of supports the Graduate School of Education might provide to teachers, but
they could also be used to help strengthen and refine academic advisement training provided to
faculty members.
While both proposed research avenues above focus on the collection of quantitative data,
adding in qualitative data, for a mixed methods approach, would also prove fruitful and rigorous.
Interviewing teachers about their mental health needs would provide additional data and would
allow the researcher to hear about teachers’ needs in their own words. A mixed methods
approach to future data collection would also result in triangulation, further strengthening
inferences that could be made about teachers’ needs and self-perceptions. Overall, while the
current study provided insight into teachers’ mental health needs from a faculty perspective,
additional research would result in a more complete picture of the larger problem of new
teachers’ mental health.
Conclusion
The problem of practice addressed in this study was new teachers’ mental health with a
focus on depression, anxiety, and burnout as well as how these types of mental health concerns
might impact them, their schools, and their classrooms. Faculty members were chosen as the
primary stakeholder group of focus for the study as a result of the role they play in providing
academic advisement to new teachers within the structure of an MAT program. Clark and Estes’
(2008) KMO gap analysis framework was used to ascertain gaps (or lack thereof) in faculty
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 106

members’ knowledge and motivation with regards to supporting teachers’ mental health needs,
as well as their perceptions of broader organizational supports.
Results from an online survey administered to faculty members illuminated some gaps
that were anticipated at the outset of the study as well as other, unexpected ones. With regards to
knowledge, slight gaps were revealed, particularly in faculty understanding that new teachers are
more apt to experience mental health challenges than their more experienced peers. While
faculty members displayed little to no gap in motivation, an unexpected gap manifested between
faculty members’ espoused beliefs about the importance of providing non-academic support to
teachers and their actual practices. In general, a gap appeared between different faculty
members’ practices, in that some reported spending time speaking with teachers about mental
health needs while others did not. With regards to organizational factors, most faculty members
identified gaps in teachers’ mental health support provided by Graduate School of Education and
also called for the organization to provide them with training around supporting teachers’ mental
health.
Along with previous studies that have focused on providing evidence of teachers’ mental
health needs, this study underlines the importance of supporting teachers inside as well as
outside the classroom. It also highlights the role that faculty members and academic advisors
can play in providing this support, if they are given the necessary training. As national instances
of mental health concerns continue to increase (Anxiety Disorders Association of America,
2007; Gallagher, 2015) and as the need for teachers also increases (Hussar & Bailey, 2013), it is
vitally important that teacher preparation organizations plan how they will explicitly support
teachers’ mental health needs and how they will train those staff members who spend the most
time with new teachers, whether they are instructional coaches, professors, or academic advisors.
Too often, in the field of education, having a difficult first few years of teaching is considered a
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 107

rite of passage or a sort of trial by fire. While teaching will always be a challenging profession,
that does not mean that teachers’ mental health must suffer or that resources cannot be created
with an eye to supporting educators in particular. If teaching is to be a sustainable profession,
teachers’ mental health needs must be considered and the professionals who support them must
be given adequate training as well.

Stakeholder
Knowledge (i.e.,
knowledge types),
Skills, Motivation
(i.e., self-efficacy,
value, etc.)

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 108

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SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 117

Appendix A
Survey Items
1. How would you define good mental health, when it comes to teachers?
2. In terms of mental health, what behaviors or symptoms would cause you concern, if you
observed them in a graduate student?
3. When discussing issues related to mental health, I try to destigmatize it (always,
sometimes, never).
4. I think it is important for me to address mental health concerns when they materialize
(strongly agree, agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, disagree, strongly disagree).
5. Newer teachers are more likely to experience challenges with mental health than their
more experienced peers (strongly agree, agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree,
disagree, strongly disagree).
6. It is part of my role as an advisor to support my graduate students’ academic success
(strongly agree, agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, disagree, strongly disagree).
7. In the past week, I have spent approximately __ hours working on academic advisement
(i.e. emailing graduate students, emailing school leaders, meeting with graduate students
during Office Hours, etc.).
8. Of these interactions, please indicate how many involved some discussion of a non-
academic topic (i.e. personal life, teaching, career) (all, most, almost none, none).
9. It is part of my role as an advisor to support my graduate students’ general well-being,
outside of their coursework (strongly agree, agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree,
disagree, strongly disagree).
10. My support can have a positive impact on graduate students’ mental well-being (strongly
agree, agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, disagree, strongly disagree).
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 118

11. I have the necessary knowledge to support teachers with mental health concerns (strongly
agree, agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, disagree, strongly disagree).
12. In the past year, I have spoken explicitly with ___ advisee(s) about their mental health
needs.
13. Graduate School has provided me with the necessary training to support my advisees’
mental health (strongly agree, agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, disagree,
strongly disagree).
14. Graduate School, as an institution, provides the necessary supports for graduate students
who are experiencing challenges with their mental health (strongly agree, agree,
somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, disagree, strongly disagree).
15. What supports could Graduate School add, to help aid graduate students’ mental well-
being? Choose all that apply: None, trained counselor, mental health training for faculty
members, in-person mental health training for graduate students, phone helpline.
16. Please write in any further support(s) you think might be helpful.
17. I have been working in education for (choose one): less than 2 years, 2-4 years, 5-7
years, 8-10 years, 10+ years
18. I have been working at Graduate School for (choose one): 0-1 years, 2-3 years, 4-5 years,
6+ years
19. I am a (choose your primary role) at Graduate School: Instructional Fellow, Assistant
Professor, Dean
20. I identify as (choose one): white, black/ African American, Latinx, Asian/ Pacific
Islander, multi-racial, other, prefer not to say
21. I identify as (choose one): male, female, gender non-binary, other, prefer not to say

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 119

Appendix B
Immediate Evaluation Instrument
Immediately after the training program for L1 and L2
Open Response
1. In terms of mental health, what behaviors or symptoms would cause you concern, if you
observed them in a graduate student? (L2: Declarative)
Likert Scale: strongly agree, agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, disagree, strongly
disagree
2. I think it is important for me to address mental health concerns in students when they
materialize. (L2: Attitude).
3. New teachers (teachers with 1-3 years of experience) are more likely to experience
challenges with mental health than their more experienced peers (L2: Declarative ).
4. Mental health can impact teachers’ academic and professional success (L2: Attitude)
5. My support can have a positive impact on teacher’s mental health (L2: Motivation).
6. I feel prepared to present and speak about the mental health resources available to
teachers (Confident)
Open Response
7. Please describe your plan for presenting and speaking about available mental health
resources with the teachers you support (Commitment)
8. How do you plan on implementing what you learned today in your advisement work?
(L2: Procedural)
Likert Scale: strongly agree, agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, disagree, strongly
disagree
9. Overall, the training held my interest (L1: Engagement)
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 120

10. I can see the relevance of the training for my advisement work with teachers (L1:
Relevance)

SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 121

Appendix C
Survey Questions and Question Type Aligned with Research Questions and Literature
Survey Item Answer Type Research Question Relevant Literature
1. How would you
define good mental
health, when it comes
to teachers?
Open ended What are faculty
members’ knowledge
and motivation
related to explicitly
discussing mental
health concerns and/
or supports with
teachers?
Loades and
Mastroyannopoulou
(2010)
2. In terms of mental
health, what
behaviors or
symptoms would
cause you concern, if
you observed them in
a graduate student?
Open ended What are faculty
members’ knowledge
and motivation
related to explicitly
discussing mental
health concerns and/
or supports with
teachers?
Loades and
Mastroyannopoulou
(2010)
3. When discussing
issues related to
mental health, I try to
destigmatize it.
Likert (always,
sometimes, never).
What are faculty
members’ knowledge
and motivation
related to explicitly
discussing mental
health concerns and/
or supports with
teachers?
Martin, J. M. (2010);
Quinn, N., Wilson,
A., MacIntyre, G., &
Tinklin, T. (2009)
4. I think it is
important for me to
address mental health
concerns when they
materialize.
Likert (strongly
agree, agree,
somewhat agree,
somewhat disagree,
disagree, strongly
disagree).
What are faculty
members’ knowledge
and motivation
related to explicitly
discussing mental
health concerns and/
or supports with
teachers?
Tompkins, T. L., &
Witt, J. (2009)
5. Newer teachers are
more likely to
experience challenges
with mental health
Likert (strongly
agree, agree,
somewhat agree,
somewhat disagree,
What are faculty
members’ knowledge
and motivation
related to explicitly
Ferguson, K., Frost,
L., & Hall, D. (2012)
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 122

than their more
experienced peers.
disagree, strongly
disagree).
discussing mental
health concerns and/
or supports with
teachers?
6. It is part of my role
as an advisor to
support my graduate
students’ academic
success.
Likert (strongly
agree, agree,
somewhat agree,
somewhat disagree,
disagree, strongly
disagree).
What is the
interaction between
organizational culture
and context and
faculty members’
knowledge and
motivation? To what
extent are faculty
members able to put
into practice their
knowledge related to
teachers’ mental
health?
Whitehill, J. M.,
Brockman, L. N., &
Moreno, M. A.
(2013)
7. In the past week, I
have spent
approximately __
hours working on
academic advisement
(i.e. emailing
graduate students,
emailing school
leaders, meeting with
graduate students
during Office Hours,
etc.).
Open ended What is the
interaction between
organizational culture
and context and
faculty members’
knowledge and
motivation? To what
extent are faculty
members able to put
into practice their
knowledge related to
teachers’ mental
health?
Whitehill, J. M.,
Brockman, L. N., &
Moreno, M. A.
(2013)
8. Of these
interactions, please
indicate how many
involved some
discussion of a non-
academic topic (i.e.
personal life,
teaching, career) (all,
most, almost none,
none).
Open ended What is the
interaction between
organizational culture
and context and
faculty members’
knowledge and
motivation? To what
extent are faculty
members able to put
into practice their
knowledge related to
teachers’ mental
health?
Stebleton, M. J.,
Soria, K. M., &
Huesman, R. L.
(2014); Whitehill, J.
M., Brockman, L. N.,
& Moreno, M. A.
(2013)
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 123

9. It is part of my role
as an advisor to
support my graduate
students’ general
well-being, outside of
their coursework.
Likert (strongly
agree, agree,
somewhat agree,
somewhat disagree,
disagree, strongly
disagree).
What is the
interaction between
organizational culture
and context and
faculty members’
knowledge and
motivation? To what
extent are faculty
members able to put
into practice their
knowledge related to
teachers’ mental
health?
Stebleton, M. J.,
Soria, K. M., &
Huesman, R. L.
(2014); Whitehill, J.
M., Brockman, L. N.,
& Moreno, M. A.
(2013)
10. My support can
have a positive
impact on graduate
students’ mental well-
being.
Likert (strongly
agree, agree,
somewhat agree,
somewhat disagree,
disagree, strongly
disagree).
What are faculty
members’ knowledge
and motivation
related to explicitly
discussing mental
health concerns and/
or supports with
teachers?
Hung, C. I., Liu, C.
Y., & Yang, C. H.
(2017); Stebleton, M.
J., Soria, K. M., &
Huesman, R. L.
(2014); Whitehill, J.
M., Brockman, L. N.,
& Moreno, M. A.
(2013);
11. I have the
necessary knowledge
to support teachers
with mental health
concerns.
Likert (strongly
agree, agree,
somewhat agree,
somewhat disagree,
disagree, strongly
disagree).
What are faculty
members’ knowledge
and motivation
related to explicitly
discussing mental
health concerns and/
or supports with
teachers?
Rothì, Leavey, and
Best (2008)
12. In the past year, I
have spoken
explicitly with ___
advisee(s) about their
mental health needs.
Open ended What is the
interaction between
organizational culture
and context and
faculty members’
knowledge and
motivation? To what
extent are faculty
members able to put
into practice their
knowledge related to
teachers’ mental
health?
Whitehill, J. M.,
Brockman, L. N., &
Moreno, M. A.
(2013)
SUPPORTING TEACHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH 124

13. Graduate School
has provided me with
the necessary training
to support my
advisees’ mental
health.
Likert (strongly
agree, agree,
somewhat agree,
somewhat disagree,
disagree, strongly
disagree).
To what extent is the
Graduate School of
Education meeting its
goal of developing a
resource for faculty
members to help them
in supporting
teachers’ mental
health needs?
Jorm, A. F.,
Kitchener, B. A.,
Sawyer, M. G.,
Scales, H., &
Cvetkovski, S.
(2010); Rothì,
Leavey, and Best
(2008);
14. Graduate School,
as an institution,
provides the
necessary supports
for graduate students
who are experiencing
challenges with their
mental health...
Likert (strongly
agree, agree,
somewhat agree,
somewhat disagree,
disagree, strongly
disagree).
What are the
recommendations for
organizational
practice in the areas
of knowledge,
motivation, and
organizational
resources?
Rothì, Leavey, and
Best (2008)
15. What supports
could Graduate
School add, to help
aid graduate students’
mental well-being?
Multiple choice
(choose all that
apply): None, trained
counselor, mental
health training for
faculty members, in-
person mental health
training for graduate
students, phone
helpline.
What are the
recommendations for
organizational
practice in the areas
of knowledge,
motivation, and
organizational
resources?
Anxiety Disorders
Association of
America. (2007)
16. Please write in
any further support(s)
you think might be
helpful.
Open ended What are the
recommendations for
organizational
practice in the areas
of knowledge,
motivation, and
organizational
resources?
Anxiety Disorders
Association of
America. (2007)

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Asset Metadata

Creator Cohen-Fraade, Shoshana (author)

Core Title Supporting teachers' mental health: an evaluation study

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Organizational Change and Leadership (On Line)

Publication Date 11/20/2019

Defense Date 10/20/2019

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag alternative certification,anxiety,Burnout,Depression,Mental Health,new teachers,OAI-PMH Harvest,Teachers

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Hasan, Angela (committee chair)

Creator Email cohenfra@usc.edu,shoshanacf@gmail.com

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