Week 3

·         Week 3 – Challenges – September 24 - 28

o   Text: The Way of Mindful Education, Part III: Mindful Classroom

§  Diversity & inclusion

§  Stress & trauma

§  Different age groups

o   Research:

§  Black, D. S., & Fernando, R. (2013). Mindfulness training and classroom behavioramong lower-income and ethnic minority elementary school children. 

§  Schmidt, A. (2016). The ethics and politics of mindfulness-based interventions.

o   Lecture:

§  Rhonda Magee, “Moving Together fromColorblindness to ColorInsight: Contemplative Inquiry, Research and Practice inthe Work of Transformative Justice” (Mind & Life Institute, 2016)

o   Blog:

§  Discuss the intersection of mindfulness and diversity in education

o   Journal: notes, thoughts, and connections

Of my 18 fellow students in the ‘cohort’ of mindfulness students that attended Residency this past summer, there are only two who were not white. I am very aware of the overwhelming ‘whiteness’ within this current mindfulness movement; an observation that is quite startling to me given the origins of mindfulness in the first place (Buddhism with its origins in India and into Asia). I am also quite aware of the accessibility, or lack thereof, to qualified teachers, especially for those less-privileged. The retreat I attended was one of the lesser-expensive locally, at around $500 for the week. But to go to my preferred retreat, it would have cost over $1,000. To their credit, retreat centers do try to offset these costs in various ways (tiered pricing and working at the center to offset costs), but I am sure there are many who feel financially unable to attend. Even meditation classes or groups, including yoga classes, can be unattainable for some. I don’t really have answers but am very aware. And, as Rechtschaffen stated, “once we are aware of privilege and discrimination, we can hopefully gain greater understanding of the dynamics in our communities and work toward equity” (p. 106).

Mindfulness and diversity in education intersects when we care and respect the individual contexts, heritages, and histories of each person in the classroom. Rechtschaffen suggested that teachers “do research about the populations and cultures you are working with” (p.  110). There may be specific things that may be surprising or different about cultural or religious traditions that could inform how students are being raised or taught about how to deal with emotions. He suggested taking and offering opportunities to explore ancestry, culture, and family history (p. 111). Taking time to talk about being present and aware of arising feelings during these activities can be a place of learning and acceptance for both teachers and students. Authenticity, honesty, and awareness would be a good way to describe this intersection of mindfulness and the rich diversity in every classroom and school.

Rhonda Magee reflected this intersection along with a call toward social justice in her lecture and concept of ColorInsight. This was my second time listening to this talk about how awareness-based practices “assist us in working with our experiences, processing our discomfort, and increasing our empathy and compassion, all while learning, growing, and working for change together” (Magee, 2016). My takeaways were 1) that I need to be aware (a continuing process) of my own context and biases, both obvious and implicit (conditioned), and 2) to think about how that implicit bias could influence or impact how I interact with students (as well as faculty and administrators). Growing up in a white suburban middle-class neighborhood afforded me privileges. I was able to get entry-level employment easily, I was accepted and generally respected in the places I frequented, and I wasn’t targeted by law-enforcement or other authorities. Other than being female, I wasn’t considered less-than, or uneducated, even though I only had a high-school diploma. Unfortunately, I heard racial slurs regularly growing up and beyond, despite being insulated from diverse populations. Coming to terms with the reality of my conditioning and correcting my understanding came through maturity, empathy, and education. But, as always, awareness is key. Only through awareness can I analyze my biases and make decisions about my worldview through the lens of compassion and connectedness. And I think that is the ultimate intersection of mindfulness and diversity.

The research I looked at for this week include a field intervention trial by Black & Fernando (2014) that “showed that teachers reported improved classroom behaviors of their students (i.e. paying attention, self-control, participation in activities, and caring/respect for others) that lasted up to 7 weeks post-intervention” (p. 1242). What applied to this week’s focus was that this trial was among lower-income and ethnic minority elementary students, and the researchers concluded that the improvement from the MBI “might benefit teacher-based perceptions of improved classroom behavior … which has practice implications for improving the classroom learning environment for lower-income and ethnically-diverse children” (1242). The researchers acknowledged that

Teachers are given the unique challenge to balance the various learning needs of children while simultaneously managing the disruptive behaviors that occur in the classroom. Unruly behaviors in classrooms increase the emotional distress of teachers, which is a principal reason for job dissatisfaction and poor teacher retention (p. 1242).

The public school used for this trial was “comprised mainly of low income (83% enrolled in the free-lunch program) and ethnic minority (95.7%; 52.3% Hispanic, 28 % Black, 15% Asian, 4.3% White, .4% other) children who tested at the national 44 percentile in English and 59% in math” (p. 1243). The school was provided the Mindful Schools curriculum at no cost - the school “solicited the Mindful Schools program, thus they self-selected the intervention” (p. 1243). I would consider their motivation for the intervention a limitation to an objective study, as well as other limitations such as a lack of a control group, and teacher-reports that were “subject to expectancy effects from observation of and participating in mindfulness activities” (p. 1245). All in all, this study is another in my stack of positive reports about mindfulness interventions in schools.

[I expect every week I will have to adjust the studies/research a bit due to accessibility or whether I feel they apply to the week’s materials. Being my first time, I put the syllabus together without reading all the studies ahead of time to get it approved in a timely fashion. Thus, I will be augmenting and sometimes changing as we go along.]

The other study I looked at was one concerning ethics and politics surrounding the introduction of MBIs into the healthcare industry, the corporate world, and education. This was an interesting paper that asked, “how far are MBIs compatible with liberal neutrality?” and “what challenges are brought up if mindfulness is used in contexts and applications (specifically military) whose goals seem incompatible with the ethical and soteriological views of traditional mindfulness practice?” (Schmidt, 2016). Both good questions. They concluded that

In promoting mindfulness, we should be careful not to overstate its case and not crowd out discussion of other (particularly social) causes of stress, lowered well-being, and mental illness. So, there is ample reason to be hopeful about the benefits of mindfulness interventions. But the current hype around it should not make us less mindful of inhospitable social conditions and the collective measures necessary to address them (Schmidt, 2016, p. 4).

This study highlighted the debate of whether mindfulness practices can or should be secularized from its Buddhist roots, and reminded me of the article from the Pre-Course featuring Brown and Santorelli (“Does Mindfulness Belong in Public Schools,” 2016, Tricycle). And yes, I absolutely agree that mindfulness needs to not be overstated or hyped as a cure for anything. I liked how the author stated that we should be mindful of certain social conditions (I thought of trauma) that may already have helpful therapies. I do believe that mindfulness can aid various psychotherapies in cases of anxiety, depression, and trauma, but should not be a replacement in most cases.

Rechtschaffen included a section on trauma, but for the sake of time, I will not go into that currently. I will include one quote that I particularly resonated with: “we can offer students the requisite experience of a safe interpersonal space to rewire their relationship to past stressors. The nervous system cannot learn a new way forward until it has had a true visceral experience of another way. The brain literally needs to be rewired, and this rewiring can only happen with repeated empathic interactions” (Rechtschaffen, p. 118). This is something I want to keep in mind: that rewiring doesn’t happen with one event, nor just because we encourage a student to be mindful. A caring, encouraging, supportive environment of safety must be established and repeated to provide experiences of non-traumatic, compassionate relationship to ‘rewire’ the brain. I am hopeful to be part of providing that safe, compassionate environment for the students I am privileged to practice with.