Mental health

This chapter examines the link between positive mental health and resilience. It focuses on the pressures associated with working in the further education sector and the potential for these pressures to impact on the mental health of teachers. As such, it explores the effect of stress and anxiety on cognitive functioning and identifies strategies for teachers to begin to look after their mental welfare. The chapter also promotes the importance of adopting a positive attitude to dealing with difficulties, and a healthy approach to maintaining good mental health, such as through challenging unreasonable demands and reconceptualising workload pressures. The development of resilience, then, is perceived as a supportive mechanism for teachers to challenge and resist stress through the negotiation of healthy professional arrangements.