Teachers' perceptions, difficulties, and actions facing drugs at the school environment

Abstract

We aimed to evaluate the perception of high school teachers about their attitudes when approaching the topic of use of alcohol and other drugs in their work. This is a qualitative study, performed by semi-structured questions. Participants answered to a semi-structured questionnaire and the obtained data were entered into the Atlas.ti software, and thus we developed a thematic content analysis. We produced three categories of analysis: understanding the teachers regarding their role when discussing psychoactive substances; difficulties in approaching psychoactive substances in the work environment; actions and needs aimed at work with the theme of psychoactive substances at school. Some of these educators, in their perception, do not understand that discussing alcohol and drugs should be part of their work because they do not consider it as part of the role of the school. Educators realize the need for training for them to work in an interdisciplinary way with these problems not just directed to their own performances, but also concerning support networks and legislation on alcohol and drugs. It is necessary to create practical ways of providing specific training on the use of psychoactive substances to school managers and educators, investing in the implementation of spaces for discussion and reflection at the school environment between staff and students, and creating an intersectoral networking aimed at better addressing such issue.