Attachment Theory and the Classroom - Beginning of an Exploration

Spring Break wrapped up really nicely. It turned out that being on a meditation retreat for the last few days of break was really nice. I have done this in the past and found the transition to be quite jarring. I think this felt different because of the content of the retreat and because I prioritized being fully prepped for the first day back before heading off for the retreat. I also set the intention of taking it really easy the first day back to give my students and myself an opportunity to transition with as little stress and pressure as possible.

The topic of the retreat was integrating attachment theory into meditation practice, and the teachings drew extensively from the work of Dan Brown (attachment) and John Makransky (field of care practices). I found the practices to be really impactful and healing, and I left the retreat with a sense of ease with myself that I don't think I've ever experienced. Returning to the classroom this week, I was happy (and honestly surprised) that the teachings from the retreat had quite a significant impact on my teaching.

I have read about and resonated with the notion of unconditional positive regard in the past. I have also read a lot about the importance of a low reprimand environment, particularly for students with ADHD. I've had some success with both of these frameworks, but it has felt like something was missing, and I also experienced moments where frustration or exasperation would bubble up and I wasn't equanimous to maintain the tone or attitude I was aiming for. Learning more about attachment theory and doing some deep practice gave me a felt sense of the importance of unconditional positive regard as well as a framework for implementation that I think is a really great fit.

I learned that the main aspects of building secure attachment from a primary caregiver / parent perspective are creating a sense of:

• safety through consistent and reliable protection
• being seen through attunement and expressing authentic interest
• comfort through effective and consistent reassurance and soothing
• being valued through "expressed delight" (particularly relevant to classroom teaching I think)
• support for being and becoming one's best self through support and encouragement for inner and outer exploration

Everything from this list resonates, but the ones that set off the biggest lightbulbs for me were the last two. I am critical by nature, and tend to jump right to next steps for myself and my students. Taking time for delight, and to express delight, feels so good. I also love the encouragement of inner and outer exploration. Inner exploration feels particularly important to me as it's about supporting the identification of feelings and the understanding that feelings are valuable in many different ways, even when they are uncomfortable.

As the week unfolded and various happenings came up in the classroom, it was interesting to notice that I was processing things differently. I found myself naturally seeing ways to express delight and seeing more challenging moments as opportunities to explore emotion and different ways of approaching challenges as a team. 

I'm excited to do more of this work on a personal level through meditation, and I'm also eager to do some more reading and learning about ways of integrating attachment theory in the classroom.