‘Making space’: a study into the use of mindfulness for alternative school teachers

Abstract

As teachers seek to educate and transform lives, often with limited resources and time, they can experience varying levels of stress and emotional exhaustion, particularly if effective emotion regulation strategies are not employed. The experience of teacher stress may be heightened in alternative schools that provide educational opportunities for students who present with complex needs and are ‘at-risk’ of withdrawing from the conventional school system. This case study explored the perceived outcomes of a 6-week school-based mindfulness program to manage stress and support the emotion regulation of four teachers at a metropolitan Australian alternative school. The study took a mixed-methods approach to data collection, which included self-report questionnaires, interview responses and journal reflections. A number of limitations, such as small sample size and lack of experimental design, had an impact on the generalisability of the study’s findings. However, a range of beneficial outcomes emerged in association with the mindfulness program, revealing that participants experienced increased levels of both mindfulness and emotion regulation ability, in conjunction with decreased stress and emotional exhaustion levels.

Factors influencing teacher wellbeing and burnout in schools: A scoping review1

“…Results of our review indicated that mindfulnessbased practices may be connected to the ability to regulate emotions [64,69,74,75]. Similarly, there was some evidence that mindfulness based training can be effective in prevention and management of stress by inducing emotion regulation [76].…”

“…Out [62][63][64][65][66]. In addition, mindfulness-based practices were significantly associated with lower level of job stress, anxiety, depression and job-related burnout [58,67,68].…”

Intervenções em Mindfulness para Síndrome de Burnout em Professores: uma revisão integrativa

“…Alguns estudos (Fabbro et al, 2020;Flook et al, 2013;Preston & Spooner-Lane, 2019;Rodríguez & Silva, 2018) não reportaram indicadores ou ferramentas de mensuração da qualidade das modalidades de atenção plena aplicadas e a maior parte das pesquisas não mencionaram a experiência profissional dos facilitadores das estratégias, lacunas apontadas em outras pesquisas. (Emerson et al, 2017;Hwang et al, 2019).…”

The Case for Special Education Teacher Wellbeing: A Multidimensional Review of the Evidence and Future Directions

“…Research-identified challenges of an SE teacher include managing complex student disability (often with poor prognosis), dealing with paraprofessionals and specialists, creating and implementing individual education programs, adaptation of (often unsuitable) curriculum and teaching materials, and an emotional expenditure that is not commensurate with teaching experience or initial teacher education (Acton & Glasgow, 2015;Billingsley & Cross, 1992;Brunsting et al, 2014). Preston and Spooner-Lane (2019) suggest that SE teachers are impacted by an absence of contextually appropriate professional development, lack of organisational support, and excessive expectation for students with complex medical, behavioural and mental health challenges to meet scholastic milestones.…”