Towards fidelity, integrity and authenticity: A critical reflection of an academic-oriented mindfulness-based programme
Dean Howes
Warwick Research Archive Portal September 15, 2026 DOI: 10.82444/warw.33802441 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Mixed-methods study (convergent parallel design, critical realist approach) Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Adult learners enrolled in an Academic-Oriented Mindfulness Programme course at a leading UK university |
| Intervention | Academic-Oriented Mindfulness Programme (AO-MBP) course |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that the course's pedagogic approach effectively balanced its demands and that learners experienced significant growth in mindfulness and associated benefits, while the course functioned effectively as a higher-education academic-oriented course. The author also identifies possible pedagogic developments toward greater fidelity, integrity and authenticity, and theorises causal mechanisms concerning the teacher, course, learners and wider mindfulness field. |
Abstract
Despite a burgeoning evidence-base (Black 2018), there exists a number of issues and debates in the developing field of mindfulness that impact upon its pedagogy. These create an “unstable ground” (McCown, Reibel and Micozzi, 2010, p3) for teachers of mindfulness, such as myself. According to McCown (2017; 2014), tensions often arise from the disconnects between drives to create a standardised, structured account of mindfulness for teaching, training and research (fidelity) and efforts to authentically express the constructivist nature of the pedagogy of mindfulness in its teaching (integrity). In this study I utilised a critical realist approach to evaluate the outcomeeffectiveness and pedagogical properties of an established and popular Academic- Oriented Mindfulness Programme (AO-MBP) course offered to adult learners at a leading UK university. Heeding the calls in the field to develop new methodological approaches (e.g. Grossman, 2011; Brown et al., 2011), I employed a ‘convergent parallel phase’ mixed-methods design that analysed data collected from multiple sources. The analytical process of retroduction produced four overarching tendencies for the course. These were 1) that the pedagogic approach was effective in balancing the demands of the course; 2) that the learners of the course experienced significant growth in mindfulness and associated benefits; 3) that the course was effective as an HE-based academic-oriented course, and; 4) that there were possible pedagogic developments that would move the course towards greater fidelity, integrity and authenticity. Causal mechanisms that underpinned the expression of these tendencies were theorised and included factors concerning the teacher, the course, the learners and the wider field of mindfulness. A guidance framework for the design, development, implementation and evaluation of AO-MBPs was produced from the findings. Applications are discussed alongside the wider implications for the cultivating of genuinely transformational mindfulness-based programmes.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on meditation, most cited first.