‘Their best interests at heart’: exploring influences on student teachers’ learning to promote health and wellbeing in the classroom

Health and wellbeing has been identified as a requirement for effective teaching and learning in many education systems. In some curricula internationally, supporting health and wellbeing has been articulated as an integral aspect of teachers’ professional skillset. This research sought to investigate, via a small-scale qualitative study, what and how two cohorts of student teachers learned about supporting secondary school learners’ health and wellbeing during one academic year, grounding the study in Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory to explore a variety of influences on student teachers’ learning. Findings highlight that the development of positive relationships with pupils became a crucial aspect of engaging with health and wellbeing for participants. They emphasised the value of learning about teachers’ health and wellbeing practice during placement too. Pre-teaching life experience was also valued. Findings suggest the relational work associated with teaching should be carefully considered in planning and developing teacher education curricula.