Conference Agenda

The need for effective interventions to promote staff health in schools is undisputed in light of studies on the health situation of teachers. To date, however, workplace health promotion in schools has focused strongly on the individual, holistic health promotion at the organizational level is rare and the existing projects are rarely evaluated. In particular, there is a lack of prospective studies that record, analyze and explain the development processes of comprehensive, complex interventions on a longitudinal basis (Dadaczynski et al., 2015). The presented intervention study addresses this research gap by evaluating a participative organizational-level (OL) occupational health intervention (OHI) designed to improve working conditions and the health of teachers.

The analyzed intervention is an offer for systemic workplace health promotion in which customized and targeted measures are derived and implemented in a participatory manner based on the results of a staff survey. The survey tool provides individuals with feedback on their personal values immediately after completing the survey. On the other hand, a report is generated for the individual schools/school units, including the Job-Stress-Index of the school (balance of demands and resources) and the positioning of organizational demands and resources in relation to the benchmarks of other schools. The need for action is indicated by a traffic light system (green, yellow, red). These organizational results are discussed in workshops with the whole school team aiming to interpret the results of the survey and to identify fields of action for health-promoting measures. The intervention follows a configurable intervention approach in which the measures are adapted to the needs of the individual schools. The naturally occurring variation in the implementation makes the evaluation challenging (Bauer & Jenny, 2014).

The analytical framework of the study is based on Job Demands-Resources Theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014), which conceptualizes the background of the intervention that aims to reduce workplace demands and foster workplace resources in order to improve workplace health of teachers. On the other hand, the Framework for Evaluating Organizational-level Interventions (Nielsen & Randall, 2013) with the three basic elements (1) context, (2) process and (3) mental models of the actors involved (of the intervention and their work situation) is guiding structured description of the individual schools.

The paper presentation will focus on the context of the intervention as previous research shows that the effects of an OHI depends on the context of the individual school. The effectiveness of organizational occupational health interventions is influenced by the preintervention health status and prior experience of the organization (Semmer, 2006). Schelvis et al. (2016) showed that lack of trust between leadership and staff, learned helplessness and high teacher independence impede the desired effects of an intervention. Facilitating contextual factors were competent leaders (Abildgaard et al., 2019), organizational resources such as collaboration and low initial stress, and the integration of the intervention into the existing strategy (Kliche et al., 2010).

The presented paper aims to describe the context of the intervention in relation to the change in the Job-Stress-Index. We structure the description of the schools along the following questions: Who are the participants in the intervention? What is the reason for the participation in the intervention? What capacity does the organization have to conduct the intervention? What are the current challenges of the school? How is the intervention embedded in the school program and the school strategy? Did the intervention show the expected outcomes? Which hindering and facilitating factors in the context influenced intervention outcomes?

The current landscape of schools is marked by heightened uncertainty, with factors such as ongoing war conflicts, eco-anxiety, and economic crises significantly impacting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. Recognising the pivotal role of teachers in children and young people’s experiences in school, our research targets teachers and their own wellbeing. In order to successfully contribute to the mental health of children and young people, teachers themselves need to feel good in school and have relevant skills, not just knowledge, about developing mental health.

Our research targets Slovakia, a country with a neglected education system that has not fully gone through the transformation to support the development of 21st century skills, since becoming an independent democratic country just over 30 years ago. 95% of teachers in Slovakia report experiencing stress in school and 25% find the school atmosphere harmful to their mental health (Durikova, 2021). When considering the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in schools, it is therefore essential to start by examining teachers. What are the current wellbeing needs of teachers in Slovakia? What training do they need to facilitate positive wellbeing experiences in schools? To what extend could experiential training support the wellbeing of teachers in Slovakia?

We emphasise an experiential approach to professional development in the area of mental health and wellbeing. Experience-based learning is pivotal to understanding one’s own and proximal others, and this underpins the whole-school approaches to wellbeing. We draw on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory and conceptualises teachers as change agents within the microsystem of the educational environment. The framework highlights the interconnectedness of teachers, students, and the broader school community, illustrating how support networks contribute to effective teaching practices in the face of evolving challenges.

Our understanding of wellbeing includes hedonic and eudaimonic elements to provide a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing teachers' experiences. Hedonic aspects, focusing on positive emotions, and eudaimonic elements, emphasising purpose and personal growth, collectively shape the conceptualisation of wellbeing in school.

Our study leverages cross-national collaboration, involving educators from Slovakia, the UK, and Ireland. By comparing experiences and strategies across diverse educational contexts, we aim to provide nuanced insights that can inform policies addressing mental health and wellbeing on an international scale.

There has been growing attention to developing effective interventions to improve teachers' occupational health (Agyapong et al., 2022). As teaching is a highly demanding profession, a significant percentage of teachers experience high stress levels and report poor occupational health (Sandmeier et al., 2017). Two approaches to improving teachers' occupational health are discussed in practice and literature. In practice, so far, most interventions have addressed the individual's responsibility to deal with workplace-related demands (Cann et al., 2023). Another approach that, to date, has been applied to a somewhat limited extent and, hence, has been seldom evaluated by research are organizational health interventions (OHIs) (Dadaczynski et al., 2015). This approach concentrates on changing the structural and social factors of the work environment, such as workload, leadership behavior, and relationships between colleagues. As part of the intervention, these factors are identified, discussed, and redesigned in a collective process, which is organized and guided by external coaches and leadership.

Thus, an essential aspect of OHIs is employees' involvement and engagement in the intervention's implementation and change process. In public health literature, this process is referred to as stakeholder participation, which is "a conscious and intended effort made by individuals at a higher level in an organization to provide visible extra-role or role-expanding opportunities and enhanced control for individuals or groups at a lower level in the organization" (Nielsen & Randall, 2013, p. 605). In public health literature, stakeholder participation is vastly seen as a normative imperative, which implies that participation and, more specifically, a high level of involvement is preferable. This is argued on the grounds that a high level of participation ensures that the measurements meet the needs of the employees and, therefore, result in sustainable long-term changes (Rosskam, 2009). However, findings from public health research challenge this assumption. These findings indicate that a high level of participation does not necessarily result in better intervention outcomes and can sometimes lead to unintended adverse effects (Roodbari et al., 2022; Schelvis et al., 2016).

These inconsistent findings can partly be explained by the complexity and diversity of participation in OHIs. Participation can be realized in various forms and settings and different approaches are used by practitioners (Abildgaard et al., 2020). Understanding the diversity of participation can help to understand why some interventions fail while others succeed. So far, the complexity of different forms of participation has seldom been systematically described, partly because convincing analytical frameworks were missing (Marent et al., 2012). Abildgaard and colleagues (2020), therefore, suggest describing different forms of participation along four dimensions: content, process, directness, and goal. These dimensions capture stakeholders' impact on intervention objectives (content), on the organization of intervention activities (process), the degree of involvement (directness), and the underlying justifications and objectives driving participation (goal).

The analytical perspective by Abildgaard et al. (2020) forms the theoretical framework for a qualitative study to identify and describe different forms of participation in an organizational health intervention in schools. The study addresses the following questions:

RQ1: How can the analytical framework proposed by Abildgaard et al. (2020) be applied to describe and understand different forms of participation in OHIs within school settings?

RQ2: Which forms of participation can be identified along the dimensions of content, process, directness, and goal in the schools?

RQ3: What relationships can be observed between the organization of participation (process, directness), the actual participation of the stakeholders (content), and the objective of the participative process (goal)?