Ragoonaden, K. (Ed.). (2016). Mindful Teaching and Learning: Developing a pedagogy of well-being. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Schools and universities tend to be stressful places for both teachers and students. This endemic stress is problematic in many ways, particularly because of its effect on students’ affective filters (Krashen, 1985) and its contribution to increased teacher attrition levels (Karsenti & Collin, 2013). This new volume offers an increased focus on mindfulness as one possible remedy for this pervasive stress.

Editor Karen Ragoonaden brings together chapters by scholar-practitioners that examine the connections between mindfulness and education. To begin, Elizabeth Mackenzie uses a trans-disciplinary approach to review preliminary research on the effects of mindfulness training. In a variety of contexts, mindfulness training was shown to reduce stress and anxiety, increase attention, contribute to working memory, and improve executive function. This chapter, in particular, will be of interest to practitioners curious about previous research on mindfulness in education.

Subsequent chapters delve into ways teachers and teacher educators can cultivate mindfulness in their selves and in their students. Self-study, which brings a reflective focus to teacher educators’ own practices, is used by several of the chapter authors. Ragoonaden begins with a self-study that reveals how her own practice of mindfulness helped her grow as a reflective practitioner and develop a more holistic view of teaching. Sabre Cherkowski, Kelly Hanson and Jennifer Kelly use collaborative self-study to reflect on their experiences with mindful leadership, finding that a servant approach to leadership, an emphasis on presence, and a “leaderful” mindset can help schools flourish. Margaret Macintyre Latta shares about her experiences incorporating mindfulness within student teaching field experiences. She found that purposefully offering opportunities for mindful curriculum enactment to both novice and mentor teachers allows novice teachers to begin to enact mindful teaching. While these three chapters were interesting, their divergent foci and uneven writing impede their potential for practical application.

TESOL professionals interested in incorporating mindfulness into their teacher education practices may find Byrnres’ and Bassarear’s shared experiences with teaching university-based courses on mindfulness useful. Community building, an exploration of first-person inquiry, differentiated learning activities, and the use of holistic assessments are essential to the success of the authors’ courses. Geoffrey Soloway shared detailed descriptions of course assessments, which included setting an intention for the course, completing a personal wellness notebook and a mindful teaching journal, and writing a final self-study research paper. Through these experiences, He found that students were able to develop deeper understandings of interdependence, compassion, non-judgment, uncertainty, balance, and inclusivity.

As a whole, this book will be of interest to TESOL professionals interested in developing courses on mindful teaching or adopting a mindful practice themselves. The volume could have included more authors’ perspectives; the six chapters only begin to addresses methods to incorporate mindfulness in education. Perhaps this is an indication that more work is needed to explore the development of mindful teaching and learning. The studies in this volume show that doing so holds the potential to reduce teachers’ and students’ stress levels, support student achievement, and increase levels of well-being for all those involved in educational settings.

References

Karsenti, T., & Collin, S. (2013). Why are new teachers leaving the profession? Results of a Canada-wide survey. Education, 3(3), 141–149.

Krashen, S. D. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. London, United Kingdom: Longman.

Tabitha Kidwell is a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has taught French, Spanish, and English to students ranging from preschoolers to adults, on five continents. She is interested in novice language teacher education. She also enjoys running and wearing funny hats.