Mind the Teacher Seth Gershenson and Stephen B. Holt

Hosts Seth and Steve introduce themselves and the topic of the podcast: mental health in schools. Two guests, Professors Eisenberg and Biasi, discuss how we conceptualize mental health and what we know about the determinants and consequences of poor mental health.

In this episode we talk to an award-winning, longtime public school teacher in Massachusetts about his experiences in the classroom, in the teachers' union, and in various leadership positions in the school -- and how these experiences have shaped his views on how to best support teachers at every stage of their careers.

In this episode we review the research on how teachers' mental health compares to that of similar people in other professions, both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. We discuss our own research on the topic, which uses data from the US and is what motivated the creation of this podcast, as well as researchers from University College London who've been conducting similar research in the UK and other OECD countries. Then we close the episode with discussion of the most recent survey data available to see how things have changed in the past year and half.

This episode begins with a discussion of racial disparities in mental health, working conditions, and in the impact of the pandemic. Our first guest, Dr. Travis Bristol of UC Berkeley, is an expert on teacher labor markets, specifically teachers' workplace experiences, teacher retention, and the role of race and gender in educational settings; he shares his insights on the general challenges faced by teachers of color, and how those challenges were in some ways exacerbated by the pandemic. We also talk about parents' mental health during the pandemic with Dr. Alberto Ortega of Indiana University, who notes that while schools were closed many parents became de facto educators.

In this fifth and final episode hosts Steve and Seth start by reviewing the main themes raised throughout the podcast regarding the importance of mental health in schools, how mental health has been affected by the pandemic, and how these effects vary across socio-demographic groups. Then, they turn their attention to how schools, communities, and policy makers can address these concerns by making specific recommendations for change at both the individual (trainings and interventions) and organizational (school policy and practice) levels.