System-wide school mindfulness: addressing elementary students’ social-emotional learning and wellbeing
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...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2024.1272545/full |
| _version_ | 1797263587748610048 |
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| author | Danah Henriksen Natalie Gruber |
| author_facet | Danah Henriksen Natalie Gruber |
| author_sort | Danah Henriksen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-25T00:15:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d804986359e74007b68f92ac1c673335 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2504-284X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-25T00:15:23Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-d804986359e74007b68f92ac1c6733352024-03-13T04:49:31ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Education2504-284X2024-03-01910.3389/feduc.2024.12725451272545System-wide school mindfulness: addressing elementary students’ social-emotional learning and wellbeingDanah HenriksenNatalie GruberWhen 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.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2024.1272545/fullmindfulnesscommunity educationteachingsocial emotional learningstudent mental healthelementary school |
| spellingShingle | Danah Henriksen Natalie Gruber System-wide school mindfulness: addressing elementary students’ social-emotional learning and wellbeing Frontiers in Education mindfulness community education teaching social emotional learning student mental health elementary school |
| title | System-wide school mindfulness: addressing elementary students’ social-emotional learning and wellbeing |
| title_full | System-wide school mindfulness: addressing elementary students’ social-emotional learning and wellbeing |
| title_fullStr | System-wide school mindfulness: addressing elementary students’ social-emotional learning and wellbeing |
| title_full_unstemmed | System-wide school mindfulness: addressing elementary students’ social-emotional learning and wellbeing |
| title_short | System-wide school mindfulness: addressing elementary students’ social-emotional learning and wellbeing |
| title_sort | system wide school mindfulness addressing elementary students social emotional learning and wellbeing |
| topic | mindfulness community education teaching social emotional learning student mental health elementary school |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2024.1272545/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT danahhenriksen systemwideschoolmindfulnessaddressingelementarystudentssocialemotionallearningandwellbeing AT nataliegruber systemwideschoolmindfulnessaddressingelementarystudentssocialemotionallearningandwellbeing |