Teaching is one of the most challenging professions, especially for primary school teachers in the Netherlands, where burnout and absenteeism are high compared to other professions. In addition, one in five new teachers leave primary education within five years, highlighting the need for stress-reducing interventions. Despite the impact of stress on the well-being and performance of primary school teachers, research on stress-reducing interventions for this target group is lacking. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) shows promising results in stress reduction in general populations, but research on its use with primary school teachers has been limited. This PhD thesis uses quantitative and qualitative research to investigate the effectiveness of the eight-week MBSR programme on perceived stress among primary school teachers in the Netherlands.
The results showed that MBSR training led to a significant reduction in stress levels, as well as improvements in well-being, mindfulness skills, emotion regulation, self-compassion, the belief in one's own abilities, and the quality of the classroom climate. Teachers reported that the MBSR training helped them to gain more awareness of negative patterns and to better cope with emotions and stress. Professionally, this led to better attunement to the needs of their pupils, who indirectly benefited from an improved classroom climate. MBSR appears to be an effective method for reducing stress among primary school teachers and improving their professional functioning.
Bernadette Lensen (1968, Schoonhoven) has worked for 34 years in various positions within a large Rotterdam school board (RVKO). After the PABO (primary school teacher training), she went on to complete various programmes, including a post-graduate programme in Special Educational Needs and School Leadership. She worked as Deputy Director (1999-2005) and later as Duo Director (2005-2020) at the Nicolaasschool, one of the largest primary schools in a vulnerable neighbourhood of Rotterdam. Her interest in the resilience and well-being of both pupils and teachers led her to further training in positive psychology and mindfulness at Radboud University and the Radboud University Medical Center, among others, which inspired her to start this PhD research. Bernadette was also the driving force behind the introduction of a whole-school approach to resilience and wellbeing at the Nicolaasschool, which earned the school the ‘excellent school’ distinction of the Education Inspectorate in 2020. She currently works as a policy advisor at RVKO, where she is committed to promoting the resilience and well-being of education professionals and pupils at 67 primary schools.