Research
Professor leads effort to bring mindfulness curricula into schools
D
eborah Schussler, professor of education (educational leadership) in the Penn State College of Education, is part of a group of researchers who have demonstrated that school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) have benefits for students’ psychological, cognitive, behavioral and physical development. However, there has been relatively little research on the school structures that impact these outcomes for different students in diverse settings and on the role that teachers play in implementing mindfulness curricula.
By Stephanie Koons “The purpose was to talk about supports and challenges to implement school-based mindfulness and how it occurs in different contexts,” Schussler said. Schussler, who received the Spencer Conference Grant in spring 2020, facilitated the conference with co-principal investigator Julia Mahfouz, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of Colorado Denver, who received her doctorate from the Penn State College of Education in 2017, and
mindfulness. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews spanning 12 to 20 months with three 11th-grade health teachers to capture their perspectives at three to four time-points during their professional development and implementation of Learning to BREATHE (L2B). L2B, which was developed by Broderick, is an SBMP developed for adolescents that has been implemented in a variety of contexts.
While the researchers found that the L2B program aligned well with the teachers’ overall teaching beliefs and values, they discovered some tensions that implementing To address L2B elicited. those issues, One of those Schussler forged tensions, ties with a group Schussler of national and said, is that international Photo provided mindfulness scholars and is supposed to A conference hosted by Deborah Schussler drew mindfulness scholars and practitioners from around the world. school-based be invitational practitioners. while school, for Sebrina Doyle, a doctoral candidate the most part, is directive. As part Schussler hosted a conference, in educational leadership in the of their L2B training, teachers were “Mindfulness-based intervention Department of Education Policy encouraged to ask students if they implementation and sustainability Studies. want to participate in a mindfulness in diverse school contexts” Feb. activity but if they decline, to give 4-6 in Philadelphia. The conference, Schussler and colleagues their classmates space to do it. which was funded by a Spencer examine mindfulness-based Conference Grant of just under programs from the teacher’s A major takeaway from $50,000, convened international perspective in a new paper, both the study and the Spencer scholars and practitioners from “Shifting to Embodiment: Conference, Schussler said, is that multiple disciplines studying or a Longitudinal Qualitative mindfulness-based curricula should implementing mindfulness-based Investigation into the Experiences be a holistic effort that involves interventions in K-12 settings of High School Teachers Teaching not just students but also teachers, in different sociocultural and Mindfulness.” educational leaders and community geographic contexts. Participants, members. The purpose of the researchers’ who joined both in person and via qualitative investigation was to “When (mindfulness practices) Zoom, represented educational explore how teachers experienced are part of the fabric of school, institutions from the United implementing an SBMP over time, the ways of being of a school as a Kingdom, Israel, Canada and across including their embodiment of whole, it’s much better.” the United States. Penn State Education 15
