Can mindfulness play a role in improving teachers' well-being in their multi-dimensional work?

“Those who work in the educational system are familiar with the level of pressure that can arise there. It is thus important to empower educators to recognize their boundaries and understand what is going on within themselves and the environment. Educators then become better equipped to realise when stress and discomfort become persistent and have the tools to react, set boundaries, and take care of themselves,” says Bryndís Jóna Jónsdóttir, doctoral student and adjunct lecturer at the University of Iceland’s School of Education. She is currently studying the potential impact of mindfulness on the occupational well-being of educators. Her results indicate that the level of stress among teachers who have taken mindfulness courses is significantly lower than in the control group that has not attended such a course.

Bryndís Jóna’s doctoral thesis, entitled „ Flourishing Educators – Flourishing Education: Possible Influence from Mindfulness Training on Educators' Occupational Well-being in their Multi-dimensional Professional Roles”, is part of a larger research project on the impact of mindfulness training on various aspects of well-being among students and educators. “This was a whole-school implementation in three compulsory schools, with two control schools, over a two year period. We started out by introducing mindfulness in the trial schools and offered them an eight-week mindfulness course held in the school once a week during working hours. The control schools then got a comparable service after two years,” explains Bryndís Jóna, who also works as a mindfulness trainer at Mindfulness Centre (Núvitundarsetur).

International research underlines the importance of whole-school approach

Bryndís Jóna has extensive experience in teaching and school development at all education levels, but the project came about when schools began to show increased interest in mindfulness in school activities. “Staff at the Public Health Department of the Directorate of Health had noticed a significant increase in schools' interest in working with mindfulness and reached out to us at the Mindfulness Centre (Núvitundarsetur), as experts in this field, to explore how mindfulness could be implemented in education using evidence-based methods. I had already worked on the implementation and development of health promotion in schools at Flensborg College and mindfulness was part of the mental health part. I felt that this was something many connected with,” says Bryndís Jóna.

She adds that she and her colleague, Anna Dóra Frostadóttir, psychologist and mindfulness trainer, had systematically reviewed what international research said about the potential benefits, and how best to implement mindfulness in schools.  “The results showed that whole-school approach was the best alternative for the long haul which is in line with the OECD and WHO recommendation, as this approach increases the odds that the health promotion becomes established within schools,” she says.

A model was developed based on a two-year implementation process with the main goal of working with the school staff and giving them the opportunity to influence the development. This way, the staff could independently work with mindfulness without needing significant external expert assistance after the implementation was completed. They received a grant from the Public Health fund to develop and implement the project whilst studying the benefits. 

“The first year was to foster and support the staff’s mindfulness training. A team was formed in each school that oversaw the implementation and adjusted to the school culture in each place.  Anna Dóra and I were professional consultants and held regular meetings with the teams, offering meditation sessions, as well as guidance and encouragement to those wishing to lead sessions themselves for their colleagues. This was in line with our aim to make the school self-sufficient in their work on mindfulness,” she says. In the second year, the focus was on supporting interested teachers in teaching mindfulness to students and continuing to systematically implement mindfulness into the school's culture. 'When we integrate elements like mindfulness into school activities, we do not assume that everyone will practice mindfulness all the time, but rather that mindfulness training becomes a natural part of school culture, allowing everyone to get to know this life skill and attention training.

Stress levels significantly lowered after mindfulness course

This part of the study comprised a total of 150 teachers in grades 1 - 10 in the three schools. “We started by gathering quantitative data with questionnaires that were sent out four times over a two-year implementation period, and included questions on skills like mindfulness, self-compassion, self-efficacy as well as stress, anxiety and depression. When we started the research, it became clear that it was important to gain a deeper understanding of the effects on social and emotional skills, as well as the participants' experience of the implementation process. That is why we added the qualitative research method to our model and conducted interviews with focus groups among teaching staff and administrators. So now we have data spanning four years which is both rare and extremely valuable,” explains Bryndís Jóna.

An extensive database has been created in connection with the study and the initial findings are promising according to Bryndís Jóna. “We see a significant decrease in stress levels among the educators who underwent mindfulness training after one year compared to those who did not take the course, and it is still low after two years. As we know, long-term stress carries diverse negative impact on well-being and work capacity making these results alone very important,” Bryndís Jóna points out.

She adds that former studies on mindfulness training show that there is a close correlation between the level of stress and the teacher's self-efficacy, i.e. how they experience their can manage their job. Mindfulness and self-compassion thus boost self-efficacy, helps to set boundaries and reduces stress. “Our research results support this as there is significantly more self-efficacy and self-compassion in the focus group than in the control group after a two-year implementation period. These are very important findings as the well-being of educators is the foundation for a flourishing education,” says Bryndís Jóna, who is currently working on the focus group interviews where they ask about the attitude of teachers and administrators towards mindfulness in schools; their impressions of the impact of mindfulness on their social and emotional skills, and what lessons can be drawn from the implementation process.

Results benefit strategic planning in well-being

Bryndís Jóna emphasizes that this is the first comprehensive study on the use of mindfulness in Icelandic schools and hopes that the results can benefit both the authorities and school administration in strategic planning in the field of well-being. It is rare in international research that studies on mindfulness span such a long period and possess both quantitative and qualitative data, but the global academic community have been asking for this as well.  

“It is, however, important not to look at mindfulness as a quick fix and put the responsibilities of enforcing it solely on the shoulders of staff and students to work in a toxic environment. We need to look at the schools’ work environment as a whole and mindfulness could possibly be one part of the health promotion and increased social and emotional skills,” adds Bryndís Jóna. 

Maintain and increase teacher confidence and reduce stress

There has been a lot of discussion on the lack of personnel in the education system recently, and Bryndís Jóna emphasises that we need to examine ways to increase the well-being of educators and make teaching an attractive field of work. Recruitment is a challenge both here in Iceland and abroad, in addition to strong indications that a number of teachers and school administrators in Iceland do not see themselves working in schools in five years. It is known globally that the teaching profession is associated with a great deal of pressure and stress. It is thus vital to prepare future educators to deal with a multi-dimensional job as well as support current educators. This involves not only academic knowledge, though that is very important, but also a personal skill to take on the challenges that come with the job,” she says.

This is a complex scenario, and we need to consider various factors when fostering well-being in education. There is no magic fix but there is much to gain if it is possible to find a way to maintain and strengthen teachers’ self-efficacy and reduce work-related stress.  “We need to be honest and look holistically at the system we have created, be critical of the work environment and facilities and equally examine ways to strengthen personal skills such as self-efficacy and social and emotional skills. We hope to establish indicators of whether mindfulness can be one way to support the well-being of educators, who are of course key players in the development of a successful school environment," Bryndís concludes regarding the importance of the research. 
 
Bryndís Jóna is conducting her doctoral research under the supervision of Professors Ólafur Páll Jónsson and Kristján Kristjánsson, in collaboration with Dr. Ingibjörg Vala Kaldalóns and Dr. Kristján Ketill Stefánsson, scholars at the School of Education, aforementioned Anna Dóra, as well as Dr. Dóra Guðrún Guðmundsdóttir from the Directorate of Health and Lisa Juul, a scholar at Aarhus University, who is a leading expert in this research field in Denmark.