Mindfulness is a core eastern tradition, which western adaptation could be described as “moment-to moment, non-judgemental awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a specific way, that is, in the present moment, and as non-reactively and as non-judgmentally and openheartedly as possible” (Kabat-Zinn 2005: 108). Its practices such as meditation, breathing exercises, and yoga are gaining prominence in the western world – whose complexity of opportunities, challenges and crises touches the social as well as the individual level and is struggling for adults, juveniles and children alike. Schmidt (2014) mentions, the popularity of the concept of mindfulness can be interpreted as a "collective self-regulation of our culture to increasing functionalisation and acceleration [orginal: kollektive Selbstregulation unserer Kultur auf eine zunehmende Funktionalisierung und Beschleunigung]" (ebd: 13; translation: HS).

The attention mindfulness gets in western scientific contexts is increasing, especially in medical, psychological, and educational settings. There are no sharp dividing lines between these domains and researches focussing on educational settings predominately address cases of burn-out and well-being of teachers, exam anxiety or disruptive behaviour of students or effects in therapies for severe learning disabilities (Laukkonen et al. 2019, Zenner et al. 2014). This systematic literature review aims to strengthen the look on the pedagogical aspect in order to identify themes and approaches referring to mindfulness in context of necessities and aspirations in the educational system, e.g. competence development on different levels and in different ways that contribute to sustainable development. The orientation to competencies highlights that learning processes include aspects of motivation, volition, and willingness as well, nevertheless learning in formal educational settings mainly refers to the cognitive level. Especially in primary education, when learning itself, its methods and strategies are in the focus of pedagogical work, stimuli for learning and its reflection need to be varied and holistic. Implementing mindfulness in the classroom (teaching, learning and setting) could be one way to include the whole person in the learning process, its body, mind, and heart, experiences and preferences.  With a special look on mindfulness-based interventions and their effects on, and methodical-didactical potential for stimulating processes of learning, such as subject learning, professional learning, or social-emotional learning, this research aims to sound out further lines of discussion in the increasing field of mindfulness in the institutional school setting. Major research interests are:

• information about the frequency of different target groups: Which one is predominant, which one is less represented? Is the school system itself as “learning institution” addressed?

• statements about purpose and types of implemented mindfulness: What kind of intentions and interventions are common, unusual or absent?

• analysis of effects of mindfulness-based interventions in primary school settings: What is the intention of implementing mindfulness? What effects on learning and learning processes can be identified?

• information about development and trending lines in mindfulness in primary education: Where is the focus and what reasons are given in the articles themselves? Can changes be identified?

The review is part of the initial stage of the doctoral thesis "Mindfulness-oriented Approaches to Teaching Basic and Social Sciences - Getting In Touch with the World", which aims to answer the question of how such approaches can contribute to inclusive, competence-oriented lesson design and subject learning processes in an Education-for-Sustainable-Development-Classroom. Basic and social sciences (in german: Sachunterricht) is a subject in Germany, which is taught in primary school with the intention of exploring the world, its “things”, phenomena, and ecological, economical, social, cultural, and ethical interrelationships. According to education for sustainable development it involves the local level as well as the global level and is therefore predestined for mindfulness-based interventions which can enrich the didactic-methodological repertoire for exploration.

Following the characteristics of systematic literature reviews (Zawacki-Richter et al. 2020, Petticrew/Roberts 2006) the analysis of the scientific publications according to mindfulness in primary education included the following steps: 1. definition and selection of databases: scopus, World of Science (WoS), Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) 2. test, align and specify searchstring: (mindful* or mindfulness) AND ((elementary education) OR (elementary school) OR (primary education) OR (primary school)) 3. set inclusion and exclusion criteria 4. determine sample universe: a. initial sample = scopus + WoS + ERIC= 634 + 1414 + 1474 = 3522 b. selection by title and abstract / delete duplicates = 147 c. full text analysis of these (b.) will define the sample universe remaining for the detailed guideline-based content analysis These in this way identified articles are examined in means of content analysis. The coding guide for systematic categorisation includes deductive categories such as target group (e.g. teachers, students, pupils), aspects of mindfulness (e.g. interpersonal, intrapersonal), type/quality of mindfulness (e.g. intervention, teaching-learning setting, ritualization, duration and frequency). It has been complemented with inductive ones in the course of the evaluation, such as specific social/cultural/economical contexts, place and time of the survey, and programmatic approaches.

The preliminary results of the systematic literature review analysing mindfulness in the context of primary education show clearly that research interests are focussing on student side (up to two third of the sample universe). Intended and analysed effects of mindfulness-based interventions predominantly touch on issues of attention, self-regulation and classroom behaviour, well-being, emotional health and stress reduction. Few studies explicitly name interpersonal relationships and classroom climate – here the researcher take a look on both sides, the students and teachers as well, or the whole school as institution (including the leaders). Studies addressing the teachers mainly take a look at intrapersonal tasks of social-emotional health. Questions addressing learning skills – whether on the professional side of teaching or the students – are rarely asked and analysed. A very few studies considering classroom interactions, cooperative learning, and independent learning processes - these are promising for the further content analysis and discussion on methodical-didactic issues. Results of the detailed analysis, for example in terms of type and scale of intervention or quality of isolated effects, will be part of the presentation at ECER. Referring to these innovative teaching-learning arrangements, we want to contribute to the international discussion on the development of future-oriented teaching approaches.

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