Yoga as a Mindfulness Practice on Music Educators’ Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of yoga as a mindfulness practice on music educators’ stress and stress management. We designed this multiple-case study through the conceptual framework of practicing yoga to reduce teachers’ stress because yoga reduces stress in some populations. Participants attended a weekly virtual yoga class for 45 min and answered weekly reflection questions from the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale. Findings indicated that yoga positively impacted participants in terms of improving mood, reducing stress, feeling more relaxed, remembering to breathe, and maintaining more focus while teaching. Participants also indicated that they were bringing yoga and mindfulness practices into their teaching and focusing on their breath to help with stress management.

Female music educators’ stress and well-being in the height of a global pandemic in the United States

“…We followed the same participants through 1 year of the COVID-19 pandemic ( N = 16), including when the world was in lockdown through the transition back to in-person experiences. In our previous study (Authors, 2022), we examined the stress and stressors of practicing music educators because of the COVID-19 pandemic, gathering and examining data for individual participants throughout the United States by means of Google Form responses and input across 12 weekly focus group discussions in the spring of 2021. We uncovered the themes of logistics of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, student engagement, teachers’ feelings of helplessness, and curriculum changes and challenges (Authors, 2022).…”

“…In our previous study (Authors, 2022), we examined the stress and stressors of practicing music educators because of the COVID-19 pandemic, gathering and examining data for individual participants throughout the United States by means of Google Form responses and input across 12 weekly focus group discussions in the spring of 2021. We uncovered the themes of logistics of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, student engagement, teachers’ feelings of helplessness, and curriculum changes and challenges (Authors, 2022). We followed up with these participants 1 year later in the spring of 2022 through a questionnaire and focus group discussion to examine stressors that female music educators have experienced in balancing personal and professional demands, personal stressors, and the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their well-being.…”

“…In the spring of 2022, the host university’s Institutional Review board gave us permission to conduct our investigation. Drawing from our previous investigation (Authors, 2022), which occurred in the spring of 2021, we contacted sixteen participants to consider participating in the current investigation. Eight participants agreed to be part of this study and after participants confirmed their participation and we received their consent, they completed a questionnaire, which collected data pertaining to teachers’ stress (Bernhard, 2016; Hedden, 2005; Heston et al, 1996) and teachers’ stress during the COVID-19 pandemic (Kim & Asbury, 2020; Klapproth et al, 2020).…”

“…Eight participants agreed to be part of this study and after participants confirmed their participation and we received their consent, they completed a questionnaire, which collected data pertaining to teachers’ stress (Bernhard, 2016; Hedden, 2005; Heston et al, 1996) and teachers’ stress during the COVID-19 pandemic (Kim & Asbury, 2020; Klapproth et al, 2020). The questionnaire contained several of the same questions from our previous work (Authors, 2022) to compare their responses in terms of participant characteristics, teaching setting, and current stress-related variables. We also included a section for participants to share their schedules to organize a Zoom focus group discussion, each with two to three participants.…”

“…Therefore, the purpose of the study was to examine female music educators' stress, stressors, and well-being. We examined these factors with participants, approximately 1 year into the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2021 (Koner et al, 2022), and this study explored the same educators' stressors 1 year later in spring 2022, specifically exploring the following research questions:…”