BERA Bites 6 - Researching education & mental health: From ‘Where are we now?’ to ‘What next?’

The world has changed dramatically since these articles first appeared online. As we continue to endure the global pandemic, the urgency of the issues highlighted in this collection on mental health and wellbeing in education has never resonated more profoundly. The mental health and wellbeing of learners and teaching staff rank among some of the most pressing issues facing education in the early 2020s.1 Growing rates of emotional distress among school-aged children, the impact of relentless workloads on teacher wellbeing, and the seismic effects of acute low-level funding and childhood poverty are common concerns. These were some of the critical areas for research attention highlighted at our special interest group’s inaugural conference – Researching Education and Mental Health: Where Are We Now?2 – in July 2019. The event brought together researchers, academics and practitioners from contexts ranging from early years to higher education to discuss worries, consider practical solutions and set a dynamic research agenda moving forward. This edition of BERA Bites presents a collection of papers from the conference, first presented as a special issue of the BERA Blog, 3 and features ground-breaking projects supporting mental health and wellbeing in education as well as showcasing some of the latest studies to emerge, collectively helping to steer the research agenda in this crucial area