Exploring six muslim teachers` views of mental illness and well-being

Abstract

Teachers’ workload has increased significantly today. Their main responsibilities are not only confined to teaching, but also include co-curricular activities, providing extra classes in preparation for examinations, and also administrative tasks, to name a few. The main purpose of this qualitative research was to explore Muslim Malaysian teachers and mental health practitioner’s perspective of both mental illness and well-being. The study also aimed to explore (i) the teachers and mental health practitioner’s understanding and current knowledge of mental illness and well-being, (ii) to understand the factors that contributes to mental illness as well as mental well-being, (iii) to understand the teachers’ coping strategies, and (iv) to explore the relationship between spiritual practices and mental well-being. Six Muslim Malaysian teachers were involved in this study. All of them were teachers at the government public schools and they had experienced mental illnesses during their career. The six teachers, together with an organizational counselor and a mental health practitioner were interviewed using semi-structure interview protocol. The interviews took place at different times and settings. Content and inductive analysis was used to interpret data for all participants. Findings of this study showed that emotional state and thoughts was the theme generated for the first research question. Seven themes, namely attitude changes, financial crisis, work incompetency, work pressures and demands, students’ attitudes, family and societal support, and physical illness were found for the second research question. Medical treatment, religion, positive thoughts, and family and societal support were the four themes generated for the third research question. The themes religion and positive thoughts were generated for the fourth research question, which was the relationship between spiritual practices and mental well-being. Finally, the study revealed the importance of spiritual practices such as performing the five daily prayers, zikr, salawat syifa,’ and reading the Qur`an in bringing the feeling of peace and calmness in these Muslim teachers’ lives, hence helping them to cope and become productive teachers.