A New Hope: Introduction to A Practitioner's Guide to Ethics in Mindfulness-Based Programs. (original) (raw)

Mindful Subjects: The Disciplinary Power of Mindfulness in Schools

Theory, Research, and Action in Urban Education, 2021

The article examines the disciplinary power of the social-emotional learning movement in forming mindful subjects throughout various contexts of education. Mindfulness has played a specific role in the social and emotional intervention of youth who are labeled “at-risk.” Using a theoretical framework of Foucault’s theories of power and biopolitics, this essay article offers a discussion of public desires for social correction and the role of the teacher-student power relationship in this process.

Mindfulness in, as, and of education: Three roles of mindfulness in education

Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2019

Following the exponential rise in publications on mindfulness in education and the emergence of some critical perspectives on this field, this paper articulates three roles of mindfulness practice in education: Mindfulness in, as and of education. The three are developed based on an examination of the practice as it is shaped by two different socio-historical narratives, which in turn manifest in different modalities of implementation and aims in the contemporary educational field. While much of the field is governed by 'mindfulness in education' within economic-therapeutic interventions, equal attention is given to 'mindfulness as education' as reflected in a whole school approach and to 'mindfulness of education' in which the practice radicalises the ethos of critical pedagogy. Describing these three roles, the paper introduces readers to the practice itself, offers a framework for understanding its associations with a variety of educational aims, and critically discusses these associations as well as the diverse pedagogical possibilities that this practice brings to contemporary and future education.

Education and mindfulness practice: Exploring a dialogue between two traditions

Mindfulness, 2019

There is evidence of the growth in implementations and research of mindfulness practice in education, and of the practice's effects on various aspects of students' and teachers' lives. This conceptual paper, however, argues that the acceptance and understanding of mindfulness practice within education, does not depend only on evidence of its effectiveness. It also requires a broader conceptualization of the associations between mindfulness practice and education. The paper hence calls for forging a dialogical encounter between "education" and "mindfulness" parallel to the ongoing dialogue between Buddhism and science. It then develops one such dialogical encounter discussing education and mindfulness as two distinct traditions of practice that have a history of interpretations associated with their respective aims, conceptualizations, critiques and ways of practice. Based on a common typology of educational aims the paper explores how mindfulness practice features within three possible educational orientations: socialization, acculturation, and individuation. Though each orientation sets a different priority for education, assuming serious implementation, mindfulness practice can contribute to each. However, within each orientation the practice would be framed and implemented differently as the paper demonstrates by reviewing contemporary implementations. The paper thus provides a broader perspective on mindfulness and education and offers a historical context for debates concerning the implementation, justification and/or critique of mindfulness in education. From the perspective proposed, mindfulness in education is viewed as less "special" than it seems. It is a possible pedagogical practice that serves educational aims that have long been part of the tradition of education.

Being There: Mindfulness as Ethical Classroom Practice

AEPL: Journal for the Advancement of Expanded Perspectives in Learning, 2016

This essay appears in the spring 2016 issue of the journal JAEPL: Journal for the Advancement of Expanded Perspectives in Learning_. See the whole issue at http://trace.tennessee.edu/jaepl/vol21/iss1/

Experiences of Mindful Education: Phenomenological Analysis of MBCT Exercises in a Graduate Class Context

Journal of Contemplative Inquiry, 2020

With Honda Teruhiko, Mizokami Atsuko, and Nakayama Hiroaki. This paper uses phenomenological psychology both as a qualitative inquiry and a pedagogic tool in order to understand how graduate students experience the exercises of the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy program in a classroom setting. This understanding is necessary for both teachers and researchers of contemplative pedagogy to ensure that students are helped and not harmed by these practices, as well as to tailor teacher responses to the plurality of individual experience. Furthermore, it aids students in becoming aware of and articulating the changes they are undergoing through contemplative practices. This paper shares summaries of the autophenomenologies of three participants which are then interpreted by the research team. These idiographic descriptions are examined on four themes: 1) textures of attention, 2) "using" mindfulness to relax, 3) normative consciousness, and 4) pedagogical dangers and process. The analysis suggests that mindful education needs to take care in understanding the limits of our ability to express matters concerning the subtleties of how we pay attention, consider the complex interplay in non-clinical populations between "being mode" and "doing mode," and how that connects to our interpretation of "non-judgment" in mindfulness. Published on: http://www.contemplativemind.org/journal

Mindfulness and wellness: Central components of a science of learning

2015

In this paper we address mindfulness and wellness from the perspective of lived experiences in our personal and professional lives. In a context of a long term study undertaken in a science teacher education program at Brooklyn College, what has emerged about teaching and learning and emotions, mindfulness, and wellness has informed the design and conduct of our research, while catalyzing changes to enacted curricula, curricula in other institutions in the greater New York area, and to the lives of the researchers, student participants in the research, and those with whom they interacted. As such, each author includes autobiographical narratives to capture salient features of our emotional lives and ways in which meditation, mindfulness, and health projects intertwined. What we learned about emotions and ways in which they are expressed physiologically further instigated research on interventions and studies of a “recovered” knowledge field, Jin Shin Jyutsu. In this paper we identif...

Beyond the educated mind: Towards a pedagogy of mindfulness

Unfolding bodymind: Exploring …, 2001

Faced with increasing social and environmental disintegration worldwide, and moreover, a seeming inability to respond adequately to the exigency, I problematize the intellectualist bias and resulting disembodiment in our educational practice. I argue that this bias contributes to the problem at two levels: lack of intrinsic valuing of the world; and inability to translate knowledge into action. I then propose the practice of mindfulness as a tool with which we can recover our ability to value the world intrinsically and to embody knowledge.

The deeper teachings of mindfulness based 'interventions' as a reconstruction of 'education'

Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2015

While contemplative practices have emerged from wisdom-traditions, the rhetoric surrounding their justification in contemporary public educational settings has been substantially undergirded by the scientific evidence-based approach. This article finds the practice and construct of ‘attention’ to be the bridge between this peculiar encounter of science and wisdom traditions, and a vantage point from which we can re-examine the scope and practice of ‘education’. The article develops an educational typology based on ‘attention’ as a curricular deliberation point. Every pedagogical act rides over a meta-pedagogical injunction of where to attend to find that which society deems worthwhile. The deep curricular teachings thus begin in the question where knowledge of most worth exists (in here or out there) and precede content. It is at this hidden level in which our spatial-temporal disposition towards life-meaning can be shaped. Following this typology, the article will suggest that beyond what may be critiqued as instrumental mindfulness-based curricular ‘interventions’ that cater to an economic educational narrative, lurks the trajectory of a contemplative educational turn that may be outwitting over-instrumentalisation through wisdom-traditions.