Mindfulness Interventions for Educators: Preventing Burnout Through Personal and Professional Development

When it comes to professions with the highest rate of burnout, educators are prime candidates for facing this often debilitating and life-altering phenomena. Although the causes of teacher burnout are vast (and typically depend on the teacher’s context and level of experience), the effects appear to not only impact the life and career of the teacher, but also the students and school community. Despite the sense of both hopelessness and helplessness that arise with burnout, there are accessible strategies teachers can use in order to mitigate the amounting stressors. The growing field contemplative sciences have found that mindfulness, the act of paying attention on purpose, can largely impact one’s mindset. Previous studies within the field have found that mindfulness interventions can help prevent and/or combat teacher burnout. As the rates of burnout continue to rise—especially during the unprecedented times of a global pandemic in which the teaching profession has been largely reshaped—it is essential to provide educators with access to mindfulness strategies to help support their social and emotional well-being. With more mindful teachers, we will begin to see more mindful students and, in turn, more copacetic school communities. My findings have led me to creating an in-service personal and professional development presentation that provides educators with an overview of mindfulness and support in how to implement mindfulness strategies in their own lives and even their classrooms