105 Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Elementary School Teachers: A Qualitative study Qualitative analyses Early March 2021 all focus group interviews were conducted within one week. At the end of April 2021 the three closing MBSR sessions were recorded within two consecutive days. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, all interviews were recorded via videoconferencing and anonymized and transcribed by three students. Thematic analysis was used, meaning that raw data were transformed to codes and codes to themes and subthemes. Identifying and defining these themes led to interpretations (Castleberry and Nolen, 2018). The interviews were coded by two independent raters (JL, FB) to minimize subjectivity. The raters discussed their codes per interview until agreement was reached and they created a code book that was complemented with new codes as they continued analysing new interviews. The final codes were processed and analysed by using a qualitative software package (Atlas.ti version 8.0, Scientific Software Development GmbH, Berlin, Germany). To construct the themes and subthemes, an expert team of five different researchers (AS, IH, FB, SS, JL) discussed the focus group codes and combined them into themes. This procedure was repeated for the last session group. The results of both groups were then compared and differences were explored. The five members of the team were a psychologist with expertise in primary education (SS), a psychiatrist with expertise in mindfulness (AS), a psychologist/mindfulness trainer (IH), a researcher and practitioner in behavioural science and education (FB) and a mindfulness trainer with a longstanding career as a teacher and principal in primary education (JL). Finally, we examined to what extent saturation had been achieved and if sufficient information had been obtained within all (sub)themes. RESULTS Themes and subthemes Three main themes emerged from the focus group interviews: (a) effects on teachers personally, further divided into six subthemes; (b) effects on teachers professionally, further divided into five subthemes; and (c) effects on pupils as observed by the teachers, further divided into five subthemes (See Table 3). Citations per (sub)theme can be found in Table 4. No saturation was achieved and insufficient information was obtained within some (sub)themes, i.e. relationship with colleagues and parents. It turned out that the effect of MBSR on teachers personally was often connected to their functioning as a teacher and was thus most often mentioned. For example, one participant indicated: “It’s kind of difficult to explain what it has brought me purely in terms of my work, because I actually think that this is first of all a huge process you have to go through with yourself, and that in my case, this also really touches on my private life.” (M3-R1). Teachers mentioned that there was a mutual relationship between personal and professional functioning and their relationships with their pupils. They indicated for example that due to awareness and insights from MBSR, they adjusted their behaviour, which had an influence on both their personal and professional lives. For example, they 6
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