TY - JOUR
T1 - System-wide school mindfulness
T2 - addressing elementary students’ social-emotional learning and wellbeing
AU - Henriksen, Danah
AU - Gruber, Natalie
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2024 Henriksen and Gruber.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - When considering students’ educational needs, emotional and mental health are often lower school priorities than content learning and traditional curricula. Yet, a growing youth mental health crisis is a reality that educators cannot afford to ignore. In this article, we present an illustrative case, at the school community level, as a form of pedagogical innovation. In this practical article, we discuss how a disenfranchised school community incorporated a systemic mindfulness intervention into its school culture, yielding positive and impressive results. Based on teachers’ pedagogical perspectives, we share perceptions of changes in students’ behavior, mental health, general outcomes, and teacher retention. This was spurred by a need to support students’ emotion regulation at school. We situate this local community innovation within the larger issue of youth mental health within US society and education. We describe the local context and setting of the school, including the need for trauma-informed social–emotional support for students with significant needs. After describing the mindfulness innovation in detail, we then share our qualitative analysis and results of its impact. Discussing interviews with school staff and administrators, and our observations of the school and classrooms, we distill findings and offer insights about the outcomes of mindfulness used at the level of an entire school community. Our implications suggest the potential of such community mental/emotional health innovations in education for students and teachers, leading to multiple areas of school improvement.
AB - When considering students’ educational needs, emotional and mental health are often lower school priorities than content learning and traditional curricula. Yet, a growing youth mental health crisis is a reality that educators cannot afford to ignore. In this article, we present an illustrative case, at the school community level, as a form of pedagogical innovation. In this practical article, we discuss how a disenfranchised school community incorporated a systemic mindfulness intervention into its school culture, yielding positive and impressive results. Based on teachers’ pedagogical perspectives, we share perceptions of changes in students’ behavior, mental health, general outcomes, and teacher retention. This was spurred by a need to support students’ emotion regulation at school. We situate this local community innovation within the larger issue of youth mental health within US society and education. We describe the local context and setting of the school, including the need for trauma-informed social–emotional support for students with significant needs. After describing the mindfulness innovation in detail, we then share our qualitative analysis and results of its impact. Discussing interviews with school staff and administrators, and our observations of the school and classrooms, we distill findings and offer insights about the outcomes of mindfulness used at the level of an entire school community. Our implications suggest the potential of such community mental/emotional health innovations in education for students and teachers, leading to multiple areas of school improvement.
KW - community education
KW - elementary school
KW - mindfulness
KW - social emotional learning
KW - student mental health
KW - teachers
KW - teaching
KW - wellbeing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85189144773&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85189144773&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/feduc.2024.1272545
DO - 10.3389/feduc.2024.1272545
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85189144773
SN - 2504-284X
VL - 9
JO - Frontiers in Education
JF - Frontiers in Education
M1 - 1272545
ER -