Mindfulness as a Path to Well-Being for Special Education Teachers

• In Event: 34.077 - Impacting Teachers Lives: The Place of Mindfulness and Contemplative Practices in Learning and Teaching

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that special education teachers burn out faster than general education teachers, are plagued by more stress related illness, and are far more likely to leave the profession of teaching due to trauma (Langher, Caputo & Ricci, 2017). The unique pressures placed on special education teachers lead to them often burning out faster and having more extreme wellness consequences from the pressure of their work. "Teachers experiencing high levels of burnout, display less sympathy toward their students, are less tolerant of disruption in the classroom, and more likely to experience problems with their health, personal well-being, and commitment to their work" (De Stasio, Fiorilli, Benevene, Uusitalo-Malmivaara, & Di Chiacchio, 2017, p. 53).

The purpose of this research is to investigate whether training special education teachers to practice mindfulness, both privately and with their students, helps improve teacher wellbeing and/or interactions with their students. We trained a class of 17 teachers who are all enrolled in a special education master’s degree program to practice mindfulness over the course of a sixteen-week semester. Each student teacher was required to maintain a mindfulness journal that tracked their experiences and any changes they documented in their classroom. We collected the mindfulness journals and analyzed the narrative responses, noting how integrating mindfulness into their daily lives impacted them both personally and professionally. We also conducted a survey that examined the type of classroom behavior management strategies teachers utilized before, during and after mindfulness practice. Finally, we held a focus group at the end of the semester where teachers were invited to discuss any long term benefits they feel their mindfulness practice have had on them personally and professionally.

Our results support the literature on teacher mindfulness. Teachers reported significant improvements in mood, stress levels, and patience. We found that by integrating mindfulness into their lives on a regular basis, teachers were able to improve classroom climate and reduce their own stress/threat response. This shift enabled them to stay fully present to their students’ needs in the moment. Many of these teachers previously sent large numbers of students out of the classroom or to the front office to be punished due to in-class behavior. Their own mindfulness practices helped them to reduce exclusionary discipline, which has significant implications for interrupting the school-to-prison pipeline for students with disabilities (National Council on Disabilities, 2015). The mindfulness practices that these teachers integrated into their lives changed their perceptions of and improved their relationships with challenging students.

This research expands on the already existing literature by explicitly looking at special education teachers and exploring how this sub-population of educators are more vulnerable and more in need of mindfulness as an intervention to support their wellness and longevity as educators. It also brings forth new areas to explore related to mindfulness and its benefits for helping teachers be fully present with their students in ways that enhance student behavior and reduce the need for punitive discipline in the special education classroom.

Authors

• Niki Elliott, University of La Verne

• Michelle L. Tichy, Rollins College