Education for sustainable development (ESD) aims at developing competences that empower individuals to reflect on their actions, considering their current and future social, cultural, economic, and environmental impacts from a local and a global perspective [1]. Thus, it seems that in the last decade, fruitful research on integrating different competences for ESD became more evident (e.g., [2,3]). In this sense, competences for sustainable development (CSD) depart from a comprehensive and holistic view; CSD may be considered as a set of knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes necessary to ensure today’s students and future leaders are ready to deal with complex issues regarding sustainability [4]. Several authors report on these competences, using different settings and models (e.g., [5]). In this sense, ref. [4] offers a complete and integrated view from various authors, including six main blocks of competences with similar characteristics: responsibility (values, ethics, reflection), emotional intelligence (transcultural understanding, empathy, solidarity, compassion), system orientation (interdisciplinary), future orientation, personal involvement (self-motivation, motivating others, learning), and the ability to take action (participatory skills) [4].

Further studies [6] also focus on the teaching strategies that foster competences or skills needed in search of sustainability in education, such as being critical, creative, being aware of problems, problem-solving skills, or cooperation, among others. Therefore, mindfulness, defined as the capacity of a person to focus attention on events, experiences, and states of the present moment, both external and internal [7], plays a pivotal role as a comprehensive competence in ESD. In other words, awareness generated in mindfulness is related to emotional competences such as emotional intelligence (including the capacity to be aware of the own emotions and being conscious about others’ feelings or feeling empathy). However, mindfulness is also related to how individuals perceive the world that surrounds them, including the resources that they have at hand, which is linked to academic competences. In fact, refs. [8,9] affirmed that mindfulness generates a higher intellectual capability and an openness to different thinking styles. In this vein, mindfulness might be related to ESD since it fosters CSD as emotional regulation, self-awareness, and future orientation [10,11,12]. Thus, the main goal of this study is to explore how mindfulness plays a key role in the learning process in response to the need to develop students’ emotional competencies in ESD, and specifically how mindfulness has an impact on academic performance.

Mindfulness emerges as one of the most effective instruments for promoting awareness, cultivating the ability to be attentive, and increasing subjective wellbeing [13]. Thus, the authors [14,15] understand mindfulness as a “technology of the self” that exerts an action on the own subjectivity with the potential to cause effective changes in modes of existence in a more sustainable direction. Quantitative research [16] has shown a positive relationship between practicing mindfulness and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. Mindfulness would be promoting a double benefit [13]: on the one hand, it increases wellbeing by detaching it from materialistic and consumer logic; on the other, it actively promotes more sustainable behavior and lifestyle. From another perspective, the practice of mindfulness has spread rapidly among the world’s adult population in recent years, following its proven effectiveness in regulating emotions and optimizing cognitive patterns. The number of studies and research on this practice and analysis of its efficacy with children and adolescents has been increasing due to its demonstrated effectiveness in improving more ecosocial behaviors, enhancing general wellbeing [17,18], improving psychological symptoms [19], and faster information processing. In the educational context, its practice has demonstrated effectiveness in cognitive performance and significant relationships in measures of stress, coping, and resilience [20]. However, there is still a shortage of papers on the influence of mindfulness on resilience in college students and even more on its role on ESD as a competence.

In sum, although the benefits of mindfulness are well-acknowledged in the educational literature, it is not considered a key element in ESD. Hence, the present study seeks to contribute to the literature of ESD in several ways.

Mindfulness implies a state of consciousness in which attention is focused on events, experiences, and states of the present moment, both external and internal [7]. Thus, mindfulness is constantly being aware of events and experiences at the moment and accepting them as they are, rather than being absorbed in the past or worried about the future [21]. According to this definition, a mindful person is prone to be open to novelty, sensitive to context, and aware of multiple approaches to solving a problem [22]. Therefore, a mindful person might be more aware of the resources at hand. Thus, in our study, we follow this approach of dispositional mindfulness as a capacity to be conscious of events and experiences around. This approach is settled in both traditions on the study of mindfulness: the Eastern based on self-regulation of attention that is present-oriented and is characterized by curiosity, openness, and acceptance [23]. This definition focus on meditative practice. Additionally, the Western approach in which mindfulness is defined by being in the present, sensitive to context and perspective, and guided (but not governed) by rules and routines [24]. Both approaches have their similarities and differences, “but the singularities of each approach can be placed within an underlying framework, wherein each contributes to the elucidation of the other” [25]. Therefore, researchers consider mindfulness as a capacity to be aware of the present moment, being conscious about the context and world that surround us. This capacity may help people to be aware of their own and others’ emotions and the resources at hand when having difficult situations. This idea is related to the capacity to overcome obstacles and become even more resourceful after a difficult situation; that is, the capacity for resilience. Resilience is defined as an individual’s capability to sustain a normal state of balance when exposed to exceptionally adverse situations [26]. Resilience does not eradicate stress or remove life adversities. Instead, it gives people the strength to handle problems effectively, overcome adversity, and move on with their lives [27]. In recent years, there has been growing research interest in discovering the facilitators of resilience. Beyond different character traits and skills, including self-efficacy, creative problem-solving skills, and the ability to focus on the present, mindfulness has been associated with resilience [28,29,30].

In the context of higher education, a growing number of theoretical and empirical research studies support the idea that mindfulness and resilience are connected (e.g., [31,32]). In this regard, ref. [33] concluded that the sustained practice of mindfulness can improve attentional and emotional self-regulation and affects students’ capacity for resilience. Thus, it has been shown that when university students lack resilience, they are more likely to fall into situations of helplessness, apathy, depression, and anguish [34]. However, when they present high levels of resilience, they show a higher fit to university academic demands [35]. Along these lines, high levels of resilience have been associated with academic success [35,36]. Ref. [37] showed that individuals with greater mindfulness have greater resilience and, consequently, greater satisfaction with life. According to the authors, the awareness and acceptance aspects of mindfulness can facilitate the development of resilience and optimism, enthusiasm, and patience, characteristics of resilient individuals that can lead to a perception of wellbeing. According to [38], to maintain resilience, greater flexibility is required through attention and acceptance, skills that are integrated into mindfulness. In a study by [39], a positive relationship between resilience and mindfulness was observed, showing that both variables are revealed as predictors of psychological wellbeing in university students. However, there is still little research in this regard [40,41] and even more in the context of ESD. In this sense, mindfulness could be considered a holistic competence for ESD. In fact, following the previous categorization of competences for ESD [4], mindfulness might be related to responsibility, transcultural understanding, empathy, learning, and the ability to take action, and then it would be related to resilience. Thus, the challenge is to continue investigating this variable, which seeks, through education, to train tomorrow’s citizens in creating a more sustainable world.

Therefore, according to previous evidence, researchers expect that:

The study of resilience has attracted a growing research interest, especially in higher education settings, mainly because of the number of benefits that resilience has on students’ wellbeing [42]. In this context, resilience helps students overcome stressful situations and pressure arising from their studies [43]. Since resilience is a dynamic capability through which students acquire the knowledge and skills to help them face an uncertain future with a positive attitude and optimism, resilient students will be able to cope with academic demands appropriately [44]. Moreover, resilience is one of the main dimensions associated with psychological wellbeing and academic success [45]. Students’ capacity for resilience will help them to persevere in their tasks and maintain a positive attitude when difficulties arise; this persistence in their studies might be directly related to academic performance. According to recent research, mindfulness and resilience seem to be related to academic performance in educational settings [46]. Hence, the relationship between resilience and its multiple benefits on wellbeing and performance is well supported in the literature, including resilience as a buffer effect preventing burnout or dropout [47,48] and resilience enhancing academic engagement [49]. Moreover, resilience is related to academic performance, although this relationship is mediated by other variables such as engagement and self-efficacy [42]. Thus, further research is needed to uncover the relationship between resilience and direct academic performance, such as the impact on students’ grades.

Therefore, following previous research regarding the close relationship between resilience and performance researchers expect that: