Instructor Perspectives on Student Mental Health

Please register for this session in advance.

The session will discuss an on-going research project that investigates instructors' perspectives on student mental health. This project seeks to frame the learning environments of undergraduate students as a structural factor that can alleviate or contribute to mental health stressors in their lives. 

Instructors are rarely trained or otherwise prepared to address student mental health, although they regularly interact with students and their mental health concerns in classroom settings. There is great diversity among university instructors, including their working conditions, time available to devote to teaching concerns, and personal inclinations to engage with mental health as a professional development issue; this diversity can create uneven learning landscapes for students on campus.

Increasing student mental health concerns can also be a stressor for instructors, who are often juggling multiple priorities outside of their classroom commitments. 

The session will create a space to discuss what the role of instructors (and other university staff) could be in this age of increasing mental health concerns on campus.