Putting Your Oxygen Mask on Before Helping Others: Personal Mindfulness Practices of Educational Leaders

• In Event: 21.062 - MTCC Roundtable Session Six
  In Roundtable Session: 21.062-9 - Self-Care, Coping, and Teacher Retention

Abstract

Mindfulness-based approaches are becoming more common in education to promote myriad of outcomes including resiliency, wellbeing, emotion-regulation, self-reflection, and attention (Abenavoli, Jennings, Greenberg, Harris, & Katz, 2013; Broderick & Metz, 2009; Harrison, Manocha, & Rubia, 2004; Schonert-Reichl et al., 2015; Schure, Christopher, & Christopher, 2008). Unfortunately, very little work has focused on the mindfulness practices of educational leaders (Brown & Olson, 2015; Wells, 2016). This study focuses on school and district leaders, their own personal narratives and experiences with mindfulness, and the challenges/opportunities faced by school administrators who are ready to implement mindfulness as part of their leadership.

Authors

• Kerry Kathleen Robinson, University of North Carolina - Wilmington

• Julia Mahfouz, University of Colorado - Denver