Mindfulness for Critical Community Building in the Elementary Classroom

• In Event: Mindfulness Practices for Social Justice

Abstract

Research shows that with the ever-increasing accounts of bullying and pressures of standardized testing, elementary students encounter social-emotional issues that negatively affect their academic performance and well-being (Zenner, Hermleben-Kurz and Walach, 2014). Oftentimes, teachers are provided with interventions in order to address the social and emotional issues that students face; however, both teachers and students are left frustrated because these strategies are not sustainable (Semple, Droutman, and Reid, 2017; Schonert-Reihl, 2015). The authors of this presentation (one a teacher, and the other a researcher) argue for the need to make mindfulness a required part of the curriculum in schools to support student well-being and build critical communities. Using data from their qualitative research study in one author’s third grade classroom, they uphold that a mindfulness curriculum increases student well-being and sustains a critical community among students.

Authors

• Dana M. Stachowiak, University of North Carolina Wilmington

• Elizabeth DeWitte, The University of North Carolina Wilmington