https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6130-0099
![Sample our Communication Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, 2013 & 2014 volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5927/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Information-Science2.jpg"})
Abstract
Over the past two decades, mindfulness meditation has received increasing attention in academia and various fields of practice. More recently, it has also been introduced into environmental and sustainability education (ESE) settings. This study offers a first exploratory investigation of learner experiences with consumption-specific mindfulness training. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 training participants. Data analysis was undertaken applying a pluralistic qualitative methods approach. Our results draw an ambivalent picture. On the one hand, we found that mindfulness training can connect individuals with inner states and processes that are also relevant to their consumer behavior, thus providing valuable impulses for ESE. On the other hand, however, these generic learning outcomes do not easily translate to consumptive acts. One explanation for this is that mindfulness practice can sometimes serve as a self-confirmation process that reinforces prevailing values, expectations, and intentions. This indicates important challenges mindfulness practice poses in ESE.
Guideline for BiNKA-Interviews
- As of July 2016 -
Overview
The interviews are open and semi-standardized questionings without a strict schedule or a precise catalogue of questions. The interviews consist of two sections: In the first part, open questions will induce the interviewee to tell a short story in relation to the subject at hand. In this phase, questions may only be posed in order to avoid misunderstandings or gain a more detailed understanding of what has been recounted. Depending on the flow of the narration, this part may make up half or three quarters of the whole interview. If it has not already happened unasked, the focus of the second part lays on deepening and expanding the quantitative results of the individual interviewee (selection of the interviewees on the basis of the results of the quantitative questioning, see the document concerning qualitative study design). As is the case in the first part, an unconstrained narrative style by the interviewee should be the goal.
If it fits, elicitation excursions may be carried out. In the EEs, the manner of asking questions about the perceived changes in mind, attitude or behavior, inspired by the micro-phenomenological interview. It seeks to provide a more detailed record of the experiences made in a specific situation. Having an introspection instead of merely obtaining logical conclusions drawn by the interviewee is the goal here. Thus, potential preconscious changes or habitual patterns can be recognized and reflected upon.
Thereby, it is important to continually support the interviewee in recalling his experiences unbiasedly, lest he indulge in commenting, interpreting or assessing them. This may be achieved by doing short mindfulness exercises designed to raise awareness before starting the actual inter-view. (One minute of silence) Frequent repetitions, summaries of the interviewee’s descriptions or gentle redirections toward an (unbiased) account of the situation may be conducive. Especially so, if the interviewee digresses a lot or is carried away by interpretations and assessments. Another tool is to point out and address relevant emotions that remained vague or have only been expressed through body language.
Quite generally, the guideline should not be understood as a fixed method. Rather, it should be seen as an orientation guide that helps not to miss relevant aspects during the interview. The questions serve as a template which has to be adjusted to each new interview situation.
Preliminaries
Try to make friendly contact with the interviewee
Reference to the procedure
Audio recording
Data security
Voluntariness of participation
Notes during the interview
Clarification of the situation
There is no right or wrong, only interest in the authentic experiences of the interviewee
The interview begins with a narration by the interviewee (Part I), followed by questions and later on by thematic questions (Part II)
No time pressure, it takes as long as it takes and we have plenty of time to contemplate, dig deeper and ask follow-up questions
Reference to the questions for the elicitation excursion (EE): The manner of asking those questions aims at retrieving information which the interviewee might not be aware of yet. It is all about a joint inspection of a specific experience while trying to forbear intuitive interpretations of the results. The more neutral and immediate the replies, the better this form of attention will work out.
Introduction: Suggesting a joint one-minute meditation
Part I: Precursory questions/invitation to narrateFootnote 1
1. For the last 8 weeks, you participated in a mindfulness course.
What were thoughts you had about the course in advance?
How did you conceive of it?
(Attitudes, prejudices, motivation to participate, influences of your environment,…)
2. What motivated you to participate in the course?
(Attitudes, prejudices, motivations, influences of the environment,…)
3. What experiences did you make during the training and the home exercises?
(emotional, bodily, cognitive: experience/assessment/gathering/processing, … of the course or individual contents)
Options for follow-up questions
How did you perceive that specific experience emotionally?
What were your immediate thoughts on that specific experience; how did you perceive it mentally?
How did you perceive that very experience on a physical level?
Could you explain in more detail how you experienced the home exercises as a substitute for ___? Do you know why it has been that way?
4. Do you assume that you have learnt something during the course?
(Mindfulness-specific competencies, which might play a role with respect to consumption)
Options for follow-up questions
If so, what exactly? Could you clarify it with examples?
If not, how would you explain that?
5. Do you have the feeling that the course, the exercises and what you might have learned along the way have changed you in any way?
(Effects of mindfulness training on a cognitive, emotional, practical and social scale: values, attitudes, thoughts, behavior)
Options for follow-up questions
When you say that ___ has changed for you, what do you exactly mean by it? Could you elaborate on that?
How do you identify such change? How did you notice it?
Did the people in your social environment notice the changes?
According to you, have you become more “mindful”? How does it show or how do you determine it?
How do you explain that something/nothing has changed for you?
Transition: General feeling – with specific follow-up questions
6. Quite generally, how do you feel after taking the course?
With regard to your quality of life and your well-being?
How did it affect your level of stress?
Options for follow-up questions
In your opinion, has ___ changed during the course?
When you now say that ___ has changed, what exactly do you mean by that, could you explain that in more detail?
How do you determine those changes? How did you notice them?
Did people in your social environment notice those changes?
How do you explain that something/nothing has changed for you?
Part II: Detailed questions about consumption – awareness and actionsFootnote 2
The subsequent questions deal with a topic that has partly been addressed within the course before: Consumer behavior
7. Can you tell me something about your eating habits in a few short words?
Question 8 & 9 aim at
recording the subjective perception of the dimensions of consumption (Purchase, cooking, storage, disposal,…);
learning about the individual constitution of these sub-aspects; follow-up questions about these should only be asked if they have been addressed by the interviewee.
8. As a second point, how about clothing?
(See question 8)
9. Did your approach to the consumption of food and clothes change during the last weeks?
Options for follow-up questions (if yes)
When you say ___ has changed for you, what do you mean exactly? Could you give a more detailed description?
(EE-entry with a concrete example in which changes occurred)
In your opinion, is this change related to the course?
Would you say that your approach to food and clothing has become more “mindful” throughout the course? If so, how do you determine that?
(EE-Entry with a concrete example in which the interviewee consumed “mindfully” or different than before the course)
Options for follow-up questions (if no)
How would you explain that?
10. How exactly do you understand consumption personally?Footnote3
In this context, we simply conceive of consumption as the“consumption and/or use of material and immaterial goods”.
11. Were you aware of the course’s focus on consumption?
How did you experience the setting of the focus? E.g. was it too strong, too small, inappropriate…?
12. How exactly do you conceive of ‘sustainable consumption’?
Could you give an example of you consuming particularly sustainably (detailed questions – laddering → how is it experienced? What are the underlying concepts?)
Can you give an example of you not consuming sustainably?
13. Quite generally, do you intend to consume more sustainably?
Are you able to provide reasons for your intentions/indifference?
14. Do you think that your perception of the issue of sustainable consumption has changed throughout the last weeks?
Also in regard to your own consumer behavior?
Do you think your consumer behavior is now more in line with your attitudes? Has it approximated them during the last weeks? Are you able to actually implement your plans and intentions?
Options for follow-up questions
If so, are those changes in your opinion related to the course?
15. Do you believe that a consumption-focused mindfulness training can be useful to realize a more sustainable approach to food and clothing?
Options for follow-up questions
If yes, in what way?
Part III: Detailed questions on the attitude about the environment and environmental issues
Finally, I would like to talk with you about your relation to the environment and nature in general.
16. What do the environment and nature mean to you personally?
Options for follow-up questions
Could you elaborate on this?
Why do you think it is this way?
17. Do you consider yourself in any way responsible for the preservation of the environment?
Options for follow-up questions
Could you explain your view at more length?
18. Do you think there exists a connection between the course and the way you experience your relation to nature and the environment?
Options for follow-up questions
If yes, in which respect? How do you determine that? (possible EE-entry)
Part IV: Conclusive questions
19. Do you see yourself as a political person? Has your view changed in the time of the course?
20. What impression did the mindfulness trainer make on you?
Questions for the elicitation excursion (EE)
What exactly have you done to answer my questions? What happened in your mind? What steps did you make exactly?
Well, you have imagined a specific situation or remembered it? Can you now describe the situation to me in detail? What has happened therein?
You have now described to me ___ as follows (description of the situation by the interviewer) – is that correct? In which moment did you become aware that the course or your training had influence on you? Could you describe that more extensively? How and in which moment did it become clear to you?
Well, the moment of your realization took place as follows (description of the moment by the interviewer) – was that the process you went through? How exactly did that moment affect your subsequent steps/reactions?
Optional, occasional and time-conditioned follow-up questions on certain aspects of each question
Could you explain that in more detail?
How do you determine that?
In which areas did the changes occur/the influence become tangible for the first time? In which areas were they especially noticeable?
How do you explain the fact that something/nothing has changed for you?
Parting
At the end of each interview, possible questions are being answered by the interviewer (also regarding the study and the evaluation of the data etc.), contact information for potential queries is being exchanged and gratitude expressed.
Notes
1 Part 1 pursues the idea of a natural initiation of the conversation. Primarily, the participants should have the opportunity to talk freely and describe their personal experiences. However, the interviewer’s interest should not appear as being artificial or even forced as in a regular narrative interview. Yet, follow-up questions concerning the participant’s descriptions should be asked. They may be guided by the bullet points in italics. However, the interviewer should ensure that they do not disrupt the natural progression of the conversation.
2 They should always be posed. In case a few things have already been addressed in the first part, adjust them a little.
3 The questions serve to clarify the underlying conception of consumption deployed in later stages of the interview after the interviewee has described his own.