Mindfulness, Democracy, and Education
Andrea M. Hyde, James G LaPrad
Democracy & Education November 9, 2015 DOI: 10.65214/2164-7992.1190 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Citations | 34 |
| Key points | Argues that mindfulness, often treated as an apolitical individual practice, can instead be developed as a social and democratic practice through a mindfulness pedagogy and "mindfully democratic schools," drawing on Dewey, Freire, and vignettes from the Coalition of Essential Schools. |
Abstract
In this article, we explain how mindfulness can enhance a democratic way of being, connecting practices of awareness, reflection, dialog, and action to democratic citizenship and social arrangements. We begin by sharing our understanding of democracy as a philosophy and a political system. We then provide a background for the concept of mindfulness as it is used by those in the field of education and health care and as we connect it to democracy and democratic education. We introduce a mindfulness pedagogy and use this pedagogy to develop our concept of mindfully democratic schools. We use the work of John Dewey and Paulo Freire, along with other philosophers of education, to address concerns that mindfulness is fundamentally an apolitical and individual practice rather than a social practice. We end by sharing how mindful practices are imagined and supported within democratic public schools with three vignettes from the Coalition of Essential Schools, whose vision and principles promote teachers’ and students’ mindfully democratic action. In doing this, we describe the types of schools that we see as necessary for our vision of democracy. We invite readers to offer their own stories of mindfully democratic schools.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 1
Cites 3
- Contemplative Practices and Mental Training: Prospects for American Education Child Development Perspectives April 23, 2012
- Mindfulness training modifies subsystems of attention. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience June 2007
- The Uses of Mindfulness in Anti-oppressive Pedagogies: Philosophy and Praxis December 2, 2002