This timely volume critically examines the influence of compulsory education and high-pressure school environments on the mental well-being of adolescents, using a participatory approach to encourage a deeper understanding of adolescents' real-life experiences of contemporary learning and achievement in schools.

With specific focus on a prominent central London Sixth Form college alongside other educational contexts, the book uses in-depth ethnographic fieldwork to explore the paradox of schooling as synonymous with learning yet also with the associated mental health challenges that stem from this learning environment. Grounded in ethnographic and co-production methodologies, the chapters share the voices of the participants such as students, teachers, parents, and college leaders, while also offering a reflexive analysis of their lived experiences in the dual role of contributors and co-researchers. By deconstructing official definitions of mental health and juxtaposing them with the participants' interpretations and lived experiences, the book unravels the consequences of organizing education strictly to accord with narrow achievement metrics.

Forming an exciting and novel contribution to the growing literature produced in the school ethnography tradition, this book will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students in the fields of education research methods, mental health, education policy and more broadly, the philosophy of education. Parents and undergraduate students may also find the volume of use.