Fostering voluntary informal health mentoring in primary school: what are the teachers’ barriers?

P Soultatou, G Tzamalouka, I Markatzi, A Kafatos, J Chliaoutakis International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring 2009

This research article aims to explore to what extent primary schoolteachers foster healthmentoring in their routine education practice on an informal and voluntary basis. Also it aims to identify the barriers school teachers encounter in fostering informal voluntary health mentoring within routine educational practices in Greek public schools. A survey employing a structured questionnaire with a random sample of 240 teachers from 15 urban schools was conducted. Teachers’ socioeconomic profile, three categories of teachers’ barriers (namely school structure, subjective difficulties, powerful others), teachers’ professional development and training in health education constitute the main instrument of the study. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the data. The main conclusion drawn from the study is that subjective difficulties and lack of previous training in health–related subjects inhibit teachers from adopting informal health mentoring. Overall though primary schoolteachers are willing to adopt a health-mentoring role despite any reported obstacles.