Mindfulness and Compassion as Key Factors in Improving teacher’s Well Being

Abstract

Social-emotional training and mindfulness practice have been suggested as valuable in coping with job-related stress and burnout in the teaching profession. Hence, many interventions aim to cultivate these skills. The “Call to Care – Israel for Teachers” (C2CIT) program employs mindfulness, compassion, and social-emotional skill training, with a unique emphasis on the construct of care. This pilot study explores the effects of the C2CIT program among schoolteachers by comparing self-report measures of teachers trained in the C2CIT program with those of teachers serving as controls. Forty-four teachers were allocated into either the C2CIT program throughout a full academic year, including 20 weekly meetings, or passive control. Before the intervention and immediately after its end, teachers filled self-report questionnaires consisting of mindfulness in teaching, sense of efficacy, trait anxiety, mindfulness, self-compassion, burnout, stress, rumination, reflection, and interpersonal reactivity. Repeated measures ANOVAs, followed by Tukey honest significant difference post hoc tests revealed that only teachers in the C2CIT group improved in the interpersonal faculties of teachers’ sense of efficacy, interpersonal mindfulness in teaching, and the interpersonal reactivity measures of perspective taking and personal distress. In addition, they also improved in the intrapersonal faculties of mindfulness, perceived stress, rumination, reflection, and self-compassion. Our results suggest that the C2CIT program has a significant effect on teachers’ well-being and may be instrumental in reducing stress among educators.