Mindfulness in Teaching: A Case Study

• In Event: Exploring Processes of Implementation and Influence of Mindfulness Programs in Education

Abstract

Mindfulness has been defined as “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment” (Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p. 144). This greater awareness has been described as both a state and a trait. Being in a mindful state, one is more aware of what is happening in the present moment (Bishop et al., 2004). Possessing mindfulness as a trait, one regularly exhibits more mindful qualities such as greater dispositional awareness and emotional responsiveness (Brown & Ryan, 2003).
In the last 15 years there has been a growing interest in the utility of mindfulness for teachers (Meiklejohn et al., 2012). A number of randomized controlled trials have demonstrated mindfulness-based interventions to be efficacious in improving teachers’ well-being and reducing stress symptomology (e.g., Benn, Akiva, Arel, & Roeser, 2012; Jennings, Snowberg, Coccia, & Greenberg, 2011; Roeser, Skinner, Beers, & Jennings, 2012). However, no empirical research has explored the present-moment, nonjudgmental awareness Kabat-Zinn (2003) described. Teachers make countless decisions throughout the course of a school day (Shavelson & Stern, 1981), but little is known about how teachers may use mindfulness to inform those momentary classroom decisions or how mindfulness occurs in interactions with students. The purpose of this study is to explore how one fourth grade teacher engaging in mindful awareness practices makes meaning of the relationship between mindfulness and teaching. The specific research questions are:
- How does one teacher define mindfulness?
- How does mindfulness occur in one teacher’s momentary classroom decisions?
- How does mindfulness occur in one teacher’s interactions with students?
- What is the relationship between the school context and the teacher’s mindfulness in teaching?
The study utilized a case study design. The researcher operated in the interpretive paradigm (Lincoln, Lynham, & Guba, 2011), utilizing Erickson’s (1986) analytic induction research strategy. This strategy uses an ethnographic approach to understanding teachers’ meaning making in action.
The primary participant in the study was a fourth-grade public school teacher with more than 15 years of teaching experience. He has received formal training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and regularly practices yoga and meditation for the last two years.
The researcher conducted 20 hours of classroom observations, three one-hour interviews with the primary participant, a one-hour interview with the participant’s colleague, and a one-hour interview with the participant’s assistant principal.
Through the process of analytic induction, a set of empirical assertions were generated from the data. The following assertions represent statements about the phenomenon that were confirmed by empirical warrants in the data.
1 – The participant defines mindfulness as an increased awareness and greater mental space that helps him make momentary decisions in the classroom
2 – The participant uses mindfulness to respond, rather than react, to students
3 – The participant uses mindfulness to meet individual students’ unique needs
4 – The context of teaching limits the participant’s ability to always be in a mindful state
5 – The participant is still developing his mindfulness

Author

• Anthony DeMauro, University of Virginia