Mindful discipline: A pilot study exploring mindfulness and the reduction of punitive discipline for Black male students.

Racial disparities in school discipline are well known and widely studied. Studies find, for instance, that Black students in secondary grades experience the highest rates of exclusionary punishment compared with their peers (Losen, 2018). Despite what is known about the prevalence and causes of disparities, such as educator bias in discipline decisions, there is surprisingly little evidence about how to effectively shift these disparities in schools. This pilot study attempts to address this, exploring whether a brief mindfulness-based intervention for teachers may reduce the impacts of racial bias on their interpretations of behavior and subsequent recommendations for discipline after reviewing a vignette depicting a Black male adolescent. The effects of the mindfulness exercise on participants' interpretations and recommendations were examined through regression, and findings indicate a significant main effect of the treatment on both indicators. The preliminary findings of this exploratory study suggest that brief mindfulness training may help to reduce the impacts of racial bias on discipline decisions for Black students. Implications for both research and practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).