Schools, student health and family welfare: Exploring teachers’ work as boundary spanners

Abstract

Young people's health and welfare is an enduring, and sometimes contested, underpinning rationale for compulsory schooling. However, a contemporary culture of austerity and accountability has challenged the capacity of schools to address health‐related agendas. This article reports on how four Australian teachers negotiate the network of partnerships within and beyond the school when attempting to solve their students’ particular health and welfare needs. Drawing on interview data collected as part of a larger government‐funded project, we reveal the labour‐intensive, typically risky and often emotionally charged nature of this work. To better understand this ‘health work’ we drew on the idea of ‘teacher as boundary spanner’ to get a clearer sense of the type of work undertaken within an education sector that operates under the conditions of what Fraser calls progressive neoliberalism. We conclude that there is a compelling need to better support those particular teachers who are, to all intents and purposes, human safety nets called upon to care for some of the most vulnerable children in our schools.