Week 11- Independent Research Synthesis

 Mindfulness in practice is a wonderful tool for calming stress, lowering levels of anxiety, and balancing one’s overall emotions. Due to its positive benefits, many educators are beginning to incorporate mindfulness in their classrooms and throughout their schools. The problem is, mindfulness is a complex practice that may not be beneficial to all students with varying backgrounds, mental conditions, and treatment in school systems. Many experts worry that some educators implementing mindfulness practices into the classroom without first rooting out racial biases by teachers and addressing inequities in the education system may be sending the signal to students that they should “sit down and be quiet” instead of advocating for their needs in the classroom. Mindfulness and education expert Barbara Dray says, “in a quest for quick implementation, many schools bring in outside experts to lead sessions or resort to push-and-play methods like videos. Without a strong personal mindfulness background, teachers are left unable to respond to students’ needs as they arise throughout the process”. Dray explains why simply resorting to quick mindfulness exercises without an experienced teacher or counselor present can be harmful. In order to combat a potentially dangerous, lazy, and inequitable implementation of mindfulness in schools, experts recommend a “two-pronged” approach. First, educators should “acknowledge their own biases and adopt pedagogical practices that acknowledge and challenge systemic inequities”. Second, educators should “hone their own mindfulness practice before bringing it into the classroom”. By beginning with these two steps, educators can begin to develop mindfulness programs in schools that truly benefit each student and make mindfulness more equitable across the board.  

Although mindfulness is an extremely beneficial tool for students to develop, the practice itself is not a magical solution to the problems in any student's life, especially students who face systemic discrimination and injustices daily. Educators lazily throwing brief mindfulness exercises into the school day and expecting dramatic results from their students without addressing their personal and school-wide biases is unrealistic, ignorant, and harmful. Mindfulness can only be equitable if educators take the time to educate themselves on the struggles of their students and then work on developing appropriate exercises around the needs of their students.