Mindfulness Education in the Context of Spiritual, Contemplative, Religious, and Ethical Perspectives

• In Event: Roundtable Session 44
  In Roundtable Session: Spirituality and Education SIG Roundtables

Abstract

Spiritual, religious, contemplative and mindfulness approaches to education have both overlapping and distinct definitions, and they all have a significant relationship to ethical education. Although fundamentalist forms of religions are on the rise worldwide, many countries are becoming increasingly secular. In addition, young people are spending more time interacting with screens and less in “real” face-to-face social and physical interactions, especially in nature. Therefore, fewer children are growing up with intentional or unintentional spiritual, religious, and/or contemplative experience, which may impact their ethical development and contribute to greater stress, scattered attention spans, social and emotional disorders, and physical ailments. A secular mindfulness education movement may be filling this void. This theoretical literature review based paper will critically examine these issues.

Author

• Aostre N. Johnson, Saint Michael's College