Contemplative Feedback Practices for the Endless Stack: A Qualitative Study of Mindfulness Practices for Writing Teachers’ Response Work

Jenny Goransson

Advisor: Courtney Adams Wooten, PhD, Department of English

Committee Members: Susan Lawrence, E. Shelley Reid, Amber Jensen

Horizon Hall, #4225, https://gmu.zoom.us/j/95769259098?pwd=kQ0aF0webzQbrXD952uw0UjJDmZhla.1
March 28, 2025, 03:00 PM to 05:00 PM

Abstract:

As any writing instructor knows, responding to the endless stack of student writing is one of the hardest parts of the job, what Haswell (2006) called the “profession’s mark of Cain” (p. 9). Especially for secondary school English teachers (and many in post-secondary positions), large class sizes and minimal unencumbered time during the work day contribute to the volume of feedback work they must complete outside of working hours. Beyond feeling resentful about bringing work home, many teachers experience strong negative emotions such as dread, disappointment, and anger towards written feedback work, even if they deeply believe in its value (Ferris et al, 2011; Yu et al, 2021). All of these factors make it difficult for teachers to remain in a compassionate, positive, and focused mindset as they try to engage in best practices for feedback. Teacher stress, burnout, and attrition are large issues currently facing American educational institutions, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, and mindfulness research has increased in recent years to seek out additional ways to support teachers. While mindfulness has been empirically shown to be an effective practice for improving teacher stress, cognition, sustained attention (Carroll et al, 2021), and helping with teacher burnout and resilience (Valosek, 2021), existing studies have not applied mindfulness to the specific context of writing teachers offering feedback on their students' writing. Building on the work of contemplative writing pedagogy (Wenger, 2015; Peary, 2018), this project conceptualizes the feedback-giving teacher as a writer themselves who will benefit from many of the same mindfulness practices that benefit student writers. This study also contributes to broader theoretical conversations about intrapersonal rhetoric’s role in writing (Peary, 2018) and teaching (Mathieu, 2014).

This study focuses on implementing and evaluating a mindfulness-focused professional development workshop series for five high school English teachers that supports them in the emotionally and cognitively challenging task of responding to their “endless stack” of student writing. The study included surveys, journal entries, four group workshops, and individual interviews. The participating teachers learned and discussed breath awareness, breathwork, body scan, meditation, mindful writing, mindful walking, lovingkindness, mantras, mindful walking, and noting, and also engaged in work sessions where they responded to their students’ writing. I have coined the term contemplative feedback practices (CFPs) to describe the combination of mindfulness practices that best support busy teachers in the challenges of remaining focused, compassionate, and intentional in their response work. Findings from this study suggest that CFPs help teachers experience positive physical sensations such as reducing bodily tension; improve teachers’ focus, productivity, and energy; help teachers connect to their “why” for giving feedback; and build their ability to reframe a particular thought or feeling. CFPs are designed to be integrated into a busy teacher’s real life, either before or during a feedback session: breath awareness, mindful walking, mindful writing, mantras, and lovingkindness meditation. While CFPs are not a cure-all and do not take away the “reality of the numbers” of papers to read, this dissertation argues they are a useful addition to our existing toolbox of strategies for maintaining effective feedback practices and teachers’ wellbeing.