First Interiority, Then Exteriority: Recasting Mindfulness-Based Practices as a Contemplative Model of Socially Situated Literacy

• In Event: Love, Compassion, and Mindfulness: The Heart of Holistic Education

Abstract

To query mindfulness as a literacy (Soloway, 2015), this paper explores results from a yearlong ethnographic study with eight contemplative-practice teachers in three large urban centers in Canada, Chile, and China. I recast interior, individualized notions of mindfulness-based practices as a contemplative model of literacy, which furthers Street’s (1984) two models of literacy - autonomous and ideological. This paper uncovers participants’ embodiment of mindfulness practices beyond the self, which reaches classrooms and into the community. In sum, this paper bridges mindfulness studies with contemporary socially situated understandings of literacy. To conclude, I query possibilities for balancing interiority and exteriority, which cultivates wisdom and capacity for a turbulent future in challenging educational settings.

Author

• Stacey Bliss, York University