Marina Schwimmer and Kevin McDonough
Subject: Educational Politics and Policy, Educational Purposes and Ideals, Educational Theories and Philosophies, Education and Society
Online Publication Date: Sep 2018DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.175
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In This Article
Introduction
Mindfulness-Based Intervention in Educational Settings
Contemporary Educational Research on Mindfulness
Mindfulness as a New Age Practice
New Ageism in Contemporary Educational Settings
The Need for Critical Scrutiny of Mindfulness Education
Therapeutic and Entrepreneurial Dimensions of MBIs
The Undertheorized Political Dimension of MBIs
Conclusion
Further Reading
References
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Summary and Keywords
Mindfulness meditation is a growing social phenomenon in Western countries and is now also becoming a common part of life in public schools. The concept of mindfulness originated in Buddhist thinking and meditation practices over 2,500 years ago. Its original purpose was mainly to alleviate people’s suffering by providing a path to inner wisdom and vitality, which implied the development of compassion, patience, and forgiveness, as well as other values conducive to inner peace. In the 1970s, this practice was popularized in the West as it was adapted to and integrated with secular intervention programs aimed at reducing stress and dealing with chronic pain.
Packages promoting mindfulness practices are disseminated commercially, backed by research in neuroscience and developmental psychology, for use in schools through programs like MindUp and Mindful Schools. In recent years, there has been a marked uptick of interest from educational researchers in mindfulness education. Several distinct research orientations or approaches can be discerned—
- mindfulness-based intervention (MBI), an instrumental approach that views mindfulness practices in clinical or therapeutic terms;
- a spiritualist approach, which emphasizes the rootedness of MBIs in ancient religious traditions and focuses on the benefits of mindfulness practices for individual spiritual growth; and
- a political approach, which highlights the potential benefits of MBIs to develop students’ capacities for democratic deliberation and participation.
Contemporary mindfulness education in schools also sometimes reflects the cultural influence of New Age values, an orientation distinct from the instrumental, spiritualist, and political approaches, and whose impact may raise troubling questions about the purported educational benefits of MBIs. Accordingly, the alliance between New Age values, neoliberal economic and cultural values, and mindfulness practices in contemporary democratic societies and schools should be given due consideration in assessing the relative educational costs and benefits of MBIs. In particular, cultural and educational values at the intersection of neoliberal values entrepreneurialism and New Age values of personal and spiritual growth may have corrosive rather than benevolent effects on the pursuit of democratic values in schools.
Keywords: mindfulness, meditation, neoliberalism, democratic education, mindfulness-based intervention (MBI), New Age
Marina Schwimmer
Universite du Quebec a Montreal
Kevin McDonough
McGill University
