“I Will Be Less Judgmental, More Kind, More Aware, and Resilient!”: Early Childhood Professionals’ Learnings from an Online Mindfulness Module

Mindfulness can be incorporated into the early care and education setting as a mechanism to change a person’s relationship with stressors and increase early childhood professionals’ (ECPs) abilities to be present, aware, and more joyful with the children in their care. Mindfulness may serve as an important coping resource that can promote psychological resilience for ECPs. The current evaluation examined reactions and perceived benefits from ECPs who participated in an online mindfulness and compassion focused professional development module. Written substantive responses were analyzed using a two-phase analytic coding process to identify themes and relationships among themes. Results indicated that the majority of respondents found learning about mindfulness was valuable, informative, and transformative. Respondents reflected how they learned information to practice mindfulness as an ECP, identified the benefits of practicing mindfulness, and had a better understanding of mindfulness. It is our hope that this research will spark an interest within our field to consider professional development on the topic of mindfulness and compassion within early childhood and education settings.