Mindfulness in education at the intersection of science, religion, and healing

Abstract

This paper investigates mindfulness as a case study of a ‘subjective turn’ in education reflecting a postsecular age. The practice of mindfulness originates in an ancient Buddhist teaching prescribed as part of the path to enlightenment. In spite of its origins, it is becoming widespread within diverse secularly conceived social and educational settings. The paper offers a historical review of this phenomenon and analyzes why and how mindfulness has become the spearhead within a burgeoning ‘contemplative turn’ in education. The thesis suggested is that ‘normal education’ follows ‘normal science’, yet science itself is now being shaken by its own venturing into the ‘dangerous’ waters of the religious experience. The paper reflects critically on the prices and merits of mindfulness in education as a practice shaped by its becoming measurable. It locates these processes as depicting the postsecular age’s blurring of boundaries between religiosity/secularity/education, subject/object, and science/healing/education.

Keywords:

• healing
• mindfulness
• postsecular
• religion
• science
• subjective turn

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Corrigendum

Notes

1. Data retrieved from http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/index.aspx

2. Retrieved form http://mindfulnessinschools.org/about/our-story/

3. Retrieved form http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/contemplation-and-education and http://www.couragerenewal.org/courage-to-teach

4. Refer to mindandlife.org for the institute’s vision and other information offered hereafter.

5. Refer to these two recent newspaper articles: http://www.ohio.com/news/plain-township-school-stops-mindfulness-program-after-some-in-community-raise-concerns-1.389761 and http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/02/21/california-school-district-sued-over-religious-yoga-program/

6. ‘Dharma’ – ‘means variously the teaching of the Buddha, the lawfulness of the universe, and “the way things are”’ (Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 135).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Oren Ergas

Oren Ergas, PhD, is a lecturer at the Hebrew University’s School Of Education and in teacher education programs. His research focuses on rendering contemplative practices such as mindfulness, yoga, and tai chi as pedagogies, and exploring how and what we learn by applying our attention to embodied experience.