Mindfulness as a Practice of Professional Life: A Reflective Learning Journey with Second Year Teachers

Abstract

This paper summarizes the journey of my doctoral dissertation which was undertaken with nine second year teachers who wished to study the role of mindfulness in curriculum and learning. The research participants engaged in four life writing exercises around the topic of Mindfulness and Self, Mindfulness and the Learning Sciences, Mindfulness and Storytelling and Mindfulness in Systems understanding. Through the writing process and the braiding of the individual stories powerful themes emerged. These themes were then organized to create a potential model for teacher education, based on the four quadrants of the Integral Model (Wilber, 2000, 2006) focusing on incorporating mindfulness into personal and professional praxis.