108 Chapter 6 teachers also indicated that the classroom climate had improved, that there was a good atmosphere in the group and that the pupils had more fun. Triangulation with the information from the last MBSR session All codes from the focus groups resurfaced in the comments of the teachers during the last session of MBSR. About 80% of the codes from the focus groups and the last session matched, with 23 more codes found in the last sessions. With regard to the content of these codes, insight and awareness were discussed in more detail, for example the insight ‘that everything will pass’. In contrast, emotion regulation was expressed less often. With regard to behaviour and attitude towards pupils, we found more differentiation and information about awareness and attitude, but less on the theme effects on pupils as observed by the teachers. During the interviews, the main focus was on what MBSR had brought teachers and how it was used during teaching. However, there was also a teacher who said that he did not apply anything from MBSR. “I can’t say that I apply it every day in practice. It’s always there, at the back of my mind, but …. That’s it, it’s mostly in my mind, and I don’t apply it enough.” [F3p5]. In addition, some teachers have indicated that MBSR effected only their private life and far less their functioning as a teacher. “It works better at home than at work. Because when I’m in work mode, I find it difficult to slow down and take it easy.” [F3p3] DISCUSSION This qualitative study examined perceived effects of MBSR for elementary school teachers in the Dutch school system. From the focus groups, effects became apparent on three main themes: (a) effects on teachers personally, (b) effects on teachers professionally and (c) effects on pupils as observed by the teachers. Findings indicate that elementary school teachers experienced many positive changes after participating in standard MBSR, both on a personal (i.e. increased awareness in general, increased insight in patterns, behavioural changes) and a professional (i.e. more awareness during teaching, more positive and understanding attitude towards pupils, increased emotion regulation) level. This resulted in a positive effect on pupils which in turn positively influenced the classroom climate quality. To our knowledge this is one of the first qualitative studies within a European educational system on the effect of standard MBSR on elementary school teachers teaching K-5/6 pupils (aged 4 to 12 years). This study not only focused on teacher skills, but also on personal skills, how these two relate to each other and to what extent this affects the classroom climate quality. We were interested in effects on these different aspects, as we expected that learning mindfulness skills during the intervention positively influences teachers mental and physical well-being, which in turn make teachers more resilient to the high emotional demands in their teaching, and thus eventually also may have positive
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