From policy to practice: Educator perspectives on the design and delivery of mental health education in independent Victorian secondary schools

Mental health education in schools is widely recognised as critical to improving adolescent mental health; however, limited research has examined its design and delivery within Australian secondary schools. The policy context for mental health education exhibits fragmentation and ambiguity, alongside variability in approaches and limited evidence to guide practice. This study explored how educators within a single school sector navigate this complexity, drawing on interviews with eight educators across six independent Victorian secondary schools. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, informed by Bernstein’s theories of curriculum and pedagogy and Kutcher et al.’s Mental Health Literacy model, to examine how educators interpret policy, construct curriculum, and enact pedagogical approaches. Findings indicate that policy provided limited practical guidance, used primarily for compliance verification. In this context, educators engaged in complex recontextualising work to establish local coherence within structural and practical constraints. While pedagogy generally aligned with research on effective pedagogical practices, variability was evident in curriculum content coverage when examined through a Mental Health Literacy lens. These findings highlight the interpretive and organisational demands placed on educators, the equity implications of locally contingent curriculum decisions, and the value of the Mental Health Literacy model in supporting coherent, comprehensive curriculum design.