Looking for a broad framework for the integration of mindfulness-based interventions in the educational system

Today, there is a crucial need for well-being to be a priority in the educational curriculum. 21st-century schools not only provide a broad set of academic skills, but they also promote the healthy development and mental health of children and adolescents through strengths-based education and the cultivation of socio-emotional and behavioral skills. Some of the evidence-based interventions that may address these requirements include mindfulness- and compassion-based programs (MBIs and CBIs). Nevertheless, there are still several open questions concerning the implementation of mindfulness in the educational system. In this chapter, our concern is how mindfulness may be integrated in a more comprehensive way in order to help ensure its sustainability in schools as well as in institutions embedded in specific socio-cultural contexts. Particularly, we suggest that a common, shared meaning in the educational system (i.e. individual and institutional level) may result in a network where mindfulness could be supported more sustainably. A shared meaning about why and for what ends adolescents should practice mindfulness may consider not solely a personal perspective but also a social and ecological one. In this context, MBIs would play a relevant role by mediating the multiple requirements introduced by a new mental health promotion paradigm in schools