Qualitatively evaluating school health and mental health literacy programmes – using a reflexive approach

Background: Schools are increasingly important settings for the promotion of health and wellbeing. Many health-related education programmes in schools in England, including those delivered in-house by school staff or by external providers, have been evaluated to demonstrate their impact and effectiveness. However, narrative and reflexive accounts of researchers’ experiences co-ordinating and conducting evaluations of such programmes are limited.
Methods: Drawing on reflexive research journals, we offer our reflections of qualitative data collection in primary and secondary schools in north-west England for the purpose of evaluating school-based health and mental health literacy programmes.
Findings: This article explores two themes: (i) researcher identity and building relationships; and (ii) the practicalities of qualitative data collection in schools in respect of time and space. Our account provides insight into the practical considerations researchers must remain mindful of when planning and generating qualitative data collection on general health and mental health and wellbeing issues in schools.
Conclusion: Findings show that researching in schools often required considerable unseen time and effort on the researcher’s behalf. This paper also calls for more commentary style articles reflecting on and detailing research processes to complement observations, findings and conclusions. Greater understanding of the reality of data collection in schools will improve the methodical approaches of researchers. The findings in this paper will be useful for early career researchers.